When comparing BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent License 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 BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent License is ranked 11th. 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.
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Pros
Pro Protects the author
The author of the software avoids any risk for how the software may be used by others.
Pro Simple
Simple to understand and follow
Pro GPL2 Compatible
Compatible with the GPL2 License
Pro Permissive License
Code can easily be included in other projects
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 Permissive/ Pushover License
Code can be used in closed source products
Con Liability
The original author is not to be held liable for any claim or damages caused by the software.
Con No warranty
The software comes with no warranty.
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.