{"id":3102,"date":"2011-07-21T11:47:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T11:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/mit-license\/"},"modified":"2011-08-18T17:21:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T17:21:32","slug":"mit-license","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license","title":{"rendered":"MIT License"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_mit_license_mean\">What Does MIT License Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) License is free license software. The MIT License grants the software end user rights such as copying, modifying, merging, distributing, etc. It is notable for what it does not contain, such as clauses for advertising and prohibition of the use of the copyright owner\u2019s name for promotional uses. The MIT License is a free and open source software similar to the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) License.<\/p>\n<p>This term is also known as the Expat License.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_mit_license\">Techopedia Explains MIT License<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>MIT and BSD licenses are considered to be much more flexible than even the General Public License. For instance, users have broad copying and distribution rights. Thus, because the MIT license is not subject to copyright, developers are free to make changes to its software as they see fit. <\/p>\n<p>One of the confusing issues with the MIT License is its identification by several names. MIT actually licenses a variety of software. The Free Software Foundation references the MIT License as the X11 License (the 11th version of the X-Window System), which is the graphing engine for Linux and UNIX systems.<\/p>\n<p>The Open Source Initiative (OSI) does not use the X11 License name. OSI refers to the licensure as the MIT License, as do many agencies and information technology groups and individuals. Some agree that a reasonable compromise would be to refer to it as the MIT X License. Still another name is the Expat License. Regardless of its name, the MIT License is easy to understand and provides code accessibility for most developers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does MIT License Mean? Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) License is free license software. The MIT License grants the software end user rights such as copying, modifying, merging, distributing, etc. It is notable for what it does not contain, such as clauses for advertising and prohibition of the use of the copyright owner\u2019s name [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[225,229,239],"class_list":["post-3102","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cloud-native-development","definitioncat-infrastructure-management","definitioncat-productivity-software"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is MIT License? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of MIT License and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIT License\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of MIT License and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-18T17:21:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"MIT License\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-21T11:47:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-18T17:21:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license\"},\"wordCount\":265,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/3287\/mit-license\",\"name\":\"What is MIT License? 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