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No credit is owed, no thanks are due. This is an unavoidable effect of usuing the MIT license over something like GPL. Andrew Tanenbaum on choosing MIT for the

by Liquix 4y ago

No credit is owed, no thanks are due. This is an unavoidable effect of usuing the MIT license over something like GPL. Andrew Tanenbaum on choosing MIT for the MINIX project, which was used by Intel + the IC as a base for the Intel Management Engine (emphasis mine): "The only thing that would have been nice is that after the project had been finished and the chip deployed, that someone from Intel would have told me, just as a courtesy, that MINIX was now probably the most widely used operating system in the world on x86 computers. That certainly wasn't required in any way, but I think it would have been polite to give me a heads up, that's all." If you'd like to avoid a large company profiting off your work without attribution, don't use MIT.

rkagerer 4y ago
Thanks for relaying that ought-to-be canonical example. It may not be owed/due, but common decency suggests you give a heads up. In Intel's case I'm guessing there was a contending motive in that they preferred not to draw attention to it.
- esperent 4y ago
  > common decency Large companies don't operate according to human social norms like this. It's important to be reminded of this fact from time to time.
  - darkwater 4y ago
    At some point, no matter how big the company is [1], there are humans redacting, validating and applying the policy. [1] Ok, maybe Google have just bots for this also. ;)
- 0xbadcafebee 4y ago
  You can put that clause in your license! Something like: If you use this software in a commercial product, you are required to make an attempt to send me an e-mail letting me know about it, because it's just nice to know. Of course that would piss off the lawyers because now if a developer uses your software and doesn't e-mail you, you could sue them. But it's not like big companies always respect licenses anyway :)
midasuni 4y ago
Tanenbaum, to me, always seems to have a massive chip on his shoulder
akho 4y ago
Credit is certainly owed under MIT, a copyright notice must be included. (I wonder where Intel shows this copyright notice; in principle, it should come with every processor or product based on the processor. Probably in the same place where IME itself lives…)

by Liquix 4y ago

rkagerer 4y ago

Thanks for relaying that ought-to-be canonical example. It may not be owed/due, but common decency suggests you give a heads up. In Intel's case I'm guessing there was a contending motive in that they preferred not to draw attention to it.

esperent 4y ago
> common decency Large companies don't operate according to human social norms like this. It's important to be reminded of this fact from time to time.
- darkwater 4y ago
  At some point, no matter how big the company is [1], there are humans redacting, validating and applying the policy. [1] Ok, maybe Google have just bots for this also. ;)
0xbadcafebee 4y ago
You can put that clause in your license! Something like: If you use this software in a commercial product, you are required to make an attempt to send me an e-mail letting me know about it, because it's just nice to know. Of course that would piss off the lawyers because now if a developer uses your software and doesn't e-mail you, you could sue them. But it's not like big companies always respect licenses anyway :)

midasuni 4y ago

Tanenbaum, to me, always seems to have a massive chip on his shoulder

akho 4y ago

Credit is certainly owed under MIT, a copyright notice must be included. (I wonder where Intel shows this copyright notice; in principle, it should come with every processor or product based on the processor. Probably in the same place where IME itself lives…)