Comment by abetusk

Comment by abetusk 3 days ago

16 replies

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"MIT: non-commercial use" [0]

I have no idea what this means.

> MIT: non-commercial use, Proprietary: commercial use, contact for terms: hello@bizcardz.ai

Then, right under it:

> 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, subject to the following conditions ...

What?

[0] https://github.com/rhodey/bizcardz.ai/blob/master/LICENSE

rhodey 3 days ago

Though you may wish the license was different I find it hard to believe you have no idea what the license allows for

This can be found online as "dual licensing"

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  • burnte 3 days ago

    I understand your intent here but you're being told that you have not correctly achieved it, and you need to make some small changes to get to where you want to be.

    Presently you say this: > This software is available under two licenses: > MIT: non-commercial use > Proprietary: commercial use, contact for terms: hello@bizcardz.ai

    What this means:

    "You may select from one of two licenses for this software: - the MIT license which has no restrictions of any kind - a proprietary license you must contact me to learn about."

    I get you think adding "non-commercial" to that line means you're telling folks the MIT option is only for noncommercial uses, but that's not the end effect. What you are actually saying is that people can choose MIT or not, and they're going to choose MIT. You tried to say it's MIT only for noncommercial, but that language IS NOT IN THE MIT LICENSE and so your statement is unenforcable. We're only trying to help you here.

    What I think you're looking for:

    You may select from one of two licenses for this software: 1. All use where the code is used in a commercial, revenue generating, or other for-pay or professional use, you must purchase a license. Contact me for details. 2. For non-commercial uses the software is free to use, modify, and redistribute for other non-commercial uses.

    Then you want to use a license that agrees with your desires, and MIT is not that license.

    Right now anyone can take your code, take it under MIT, and you've got literally nothing to say about it. So just change that license, that's all.

    Or don't it's not our code that will be misused.

    Never write a legal document yourself. Always talk to a lawyer because these traps are really easy to set.

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  • progbits 3 days ago

    This is not how dual licensing works. If you offer two licenses I get to pick. And I pick MIT which allows me to use it commercially.

    If you disagree, then it's not MIT but some custom license, so don't label it as such.

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    • rhodey 3 days ago

      What the license allows for is very clear

      I publish many things without dual licensing and yet your kind will not be satisfied

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      • craftkiller 3 days ago

        This isn't about demanding you let companies use your code. This is about what you are calling that license. It is not the MIT license and it is wrong to lie to people by calling it the MIT license. You should give it a name like "The bizcards license" or whatever.

        IANAL but you also might want to consult a lawyer since your franken-license contradicts itself. It might be hard to challenge a company in court when they steal your code.

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      • cAtte_ 3 days ago

        if it forbids commercial use, it's not MIT. like at all

        Reply View 8 replies
  • abetusk 3 days ago

    No. I may have a guess of what the intended license is but what the license says is complete nonsense. It's self contradictory.

    If they want to let people use it in non-commercial settings but are willing to provide a license for commercial use, then they could have provided a non-commercial license.

    If they wanted to provide a FOSS license, then they should have provided one and offered a dual license option (by the actual commonly accepted usage of that term in this context).

    If they want to make an MIT-like license but make it for non-commercial use, then they should just call it a non-commercial license and not confuse the issue by claiming it's MIT.

    As it stands, they've provided a FOSS license, that explicitly allows the use, modification, redistribution and resale in commercial settings, but slapped a "non-commercial" term at the top of it.

    "Please use this software however you like, including in commercial settings, redistributing it for profit and modifying it for your commercial use. Also, don't use it for commercial use"

    What?

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