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Add to SafariWhen comparing The Unlicense vs MIT License, the Slant community recommends MIT License for most people. In the question“What are the best open-source licenses?” MIT License is ranked 1st while The Unlicense is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose MIT License is:
The license basically allows anyone to do whatever they want with the code as long as the original copyright and license notice is included along with the copy of the code. The code can be used for commercially, privately, it can be modified and it can be distributed.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Short and simple
The Unlicense is just 3 paragraphs long.
Pro It helps removing the conflicts and violence present in the world
Simple, negativates intellectual property, doesn`t falsely legitimate government coercive threats against other humans not mattering what they have done with their code. You can be sure that using it you avoid "my property, it's mine, ok? I just left it for you to use under my conditions, I own it, I wrote it in that file, it makes sense, my government also says so, now die or I'll kill you."
Pro Removes any possible licensing issues
Everything under the Unlicense is part of the public domain, which means that anything can be done with it.
Pro Unlicensed code is easy to find
When using public code hosts such as GitHub and BitBucket it is suggested to use the filename UNLICENSE instead of the more traditional LICENSE or COPYRIGHT to store the license so it's easier to find unlicensed code. Additionally, the first line of the license is worded in a unique way specifically to allow searching for it with search engines.
Pro Protects the author
The author of the software avoids any risk for how the software may be used by others.
Pro Prevents lock-in
The license basically allows anyone to do whatever they want with the code as long as the original copyright and license notice is included along with the copy of the code. The code can be used for commercially, privately, it can be modified and it can be distributed.
Pro Short and simple
The MIT license is one of the shortest licenses of all the major recognized open source licenses. The full text is just 3 paragraphs long.
Pro Explicitly allows sublicensing
The license specifically mentions that the code can be used in other software that might have a less permissive license.
Pro Protects the author
The author of the software avoids any risk for how the software may be used by others.
Cons
Con Gives no control of how the code is used
Putting the code in the public domain leaves it open to abuse.
Con Hasn't been reviewed by OSI
The OSI (Open Source Initiative) is an organization that promotes open source software and they commonly review open source licenses. However, they have decided not to review Unlicensed because it has not been written by legal professionals.
Con Does not protect long-term user freedom
The MIT/Expat license doesn't protect against open-source code being taken (without payment) and used in proprietary software. This is harmful to user freedom because it lets future development be taken out of the public domain and instead moved into non-free programs.
In addition, it doesn't protect against software patents being used to attack user freedom. Unlike the Apache 2.0 and GPLv3 licenses, the MIT/Expat was written before software patents became a problem and doesn't include a patent release.
Con Does not prevent others from taking and selling your software
The MIT license is permissive enough that anyone can take your code, rebrand it and sell it.
Con Ambiguous name
The MIT License is sometimes known as the Expat License or the X11 License because it has been used with different names in different places.
