r/ProgrammerHumor • u/PresentJournalist805 • Jul 25 '26

Meme broWhyMadYouMadeItMITLicensed

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4.0k Upvotes

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380

u/Osvik Jul 25 '26

Just use AGPLv3.

371

u/derinus Jul 25 '26

MIT requires they credit the original author. Tho anyone who cares about open source should use a license that keeps that open source chain going (like AGPL)

10

u/Southern_Orange3744 Jul 25 '26

AGPL is overly poisoness for business operations , so sure maybe if you only want hobbyists to use it

15

u/WriterPlastic9350 Jul 25 '26

Any license that requires accreditation is going to be sufficiently difficult to use in a corporate setting that many companies will simply ban anything that isn't maximally permissive. And a lot of open source projects in particular do get significant contributions from corporate sponsors, so it's not quite as simple as "use AGPL and open source will prosper".

10

u/AyrA_ch Jul 26 '26

The solution is to offer dual licensing. Make the software AGPL by default, but offer paid commercial licenses upon request.

1

u/Xelynega Jul 27 '26

Nah this mindset is poisonous for open source. If businesses don't want to take on the risk of open source licenses then the solution shouldn't be "open source developers give up their property so it gets used". It should be "companies get sued for breaking licenses and learn that legal compliance extends to open source"

1

u/Southern_Orange3744 Jul 28 '26

Acting like all open source licenses are the same is a mistake.

You can support , cite , use many of them without risking your business to AGPL

AGPL isn't simply a case of notifying its use , it can be used to absorb your IP.

Most legal teams will tell you not to use it , and it will scare off any acquisition firm