Ognjen Regoje bio photo

Ognjen Regoje
But you can call me Oggy


I make things that run on the web (mostly).
More ABOUT me and my PROJECTS.

me@ognjen.io LinkedIn

MIT NO-AI license

#ethics #licensing

Begin license text


Copyright <YEAR><COPYRIGHT HOLDER>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), 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.

Permission is not granted to use this software or any of the associated files as sample data for the purposes of building machine learning models.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


End license text.

e. The HackerNews thread was fairly interesting but I think I should have put a qualifier or two in the title because it got flagged and the conversation stopped. That’s too bad.

Regarding some practical and some pedantic criticism:

  1. No, I’m not a lawyer and didn’t consult a lawyer.
  2. Yes, technically there is a contradiction, but as far as I know more specific terms take precedence. Your landlord doesn’t need to list everything you can do in your house, they can just say you can do “everything, except…”. See point 1.
  3. I’m not associated with MIT. I should have stated that explicitly. I do not understand the implications of using their name on a derivative of a work that they might or might not have a copyright to but might or might not endorse. I don’t know. If someone from MIT asks me to remove/rename it, I’ll, of course, do it.
  4. This isn’t meant to be something to copy-paste and use immediately, but a way to start a conversation about having these types of licenses. Like Normally Open and Normally Closed Licenses but simpler. See point 1.
  5. If you change the second paragraph with “Permission is not granted to use this software or any of the associated files as sample data by members of the <INSERT RACE/ETHNICITY HERE> race or ethnicity.” it would be illegal. It is laughable, however, to suggest that the two are equivalent.