Re:The MIT license (with personal exceptions)
by henryfjordan on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @08:11PM
(#17864058)
Walmart cannot tell anyone to copy the software, lest that person become an agent of Walmart and violate the terms. So Walmart has to hope that some third party relicenses the software out of the goodness of their heart.
Of course, who knows what'd happen in court if that scenario was actually tested.
EDIT: if you are serious about that line that you'd extend them license, automate it! a little script that finds repos with that license and copies them to straight MIT would be pretty silly
Re:The MIT license (with personal exceptions)
by rys on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @08:16PM
(#17864083)
You can’t remove the permission notice, though. So maybe legally they can keep using the software, but they have to also keep the bit that says they can’t use it.
Re:The MIT license (with personal exceptions)
by thaumasiotes on Wednesday August 29, 2018 @12:45AM
(#17865705)
The list of companies isn't part of the permission notice. The permission notice is the text saying "Permission is hereby granted...". That's why the terms say you have to include the permission notice and the copyright statement. Neither includes the list of disfavored companies.
Re:The MIT license (with personal exceptions)
by duncan-donuts on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @08:06PM
(#17864031)
It’s a political statement.
> to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
> The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
Those are the entire conditions to which a grant of rights is subject.
So, while Walmart doesn't get to use this license directly, anyone who isn't on the list is free to copy the software, redistribute it to Walmart for any or no charge, and to themselves permit Walmart to deal in the software without restriction, including by using it, copying it, selling it, or anything else.
What rights exactly has Walmart lost here? Does this differ in any tangible way from the standard MIT license?
Jamie's put up a disclaimer saying "I don't care if this is not 'open source', it's the right thing for me to do." But this is just as open as it was before. I'll grant permission right here for Microsoft, Palantir, Amazon, Northeastern University, Ernst & Young, Thomson Reuters, Motorola, Deloitte, Johns Hopkins, Dell, Xerox, Canon, Vermont State College, Charter Communications, Spectrum, Time Warner Cable, LinkedIn, UPS, Walmart, Sears, Apple, Tyson Foods, Target, Tesla, and the H&M group to use the software without restriction.