Permissiveness:

• Both MIT and Blue Oak are permissive: users can use, modify, distribute and sublicense the software freely.

Patent Grant & Protection:

• MIT: Does not explicitly grant patent rights, though some courts interpret it broadly.


• Blue Oak: Explicitly grants rights to use any patented techniques in the code, covering both the original code and any future contributions also released under the Blue Oak license.

Disclaimer of Warranties & Liability:

• MIT: Includes a brief disclaimer.


• Blue Oak: Explicit, structured, "as-is" warranty disclaimer. Neither the original contributing author nor any other contributors are liable for any damages.

License Termination for Breach:

• MIT: No explicit termination mechanism.


• Blue Oak: Includes the Excuse clause - if you do not comply within 30 days of being notified, your license ends immediately.

Acceptance Clause:

• MIT: Does not include any explicit requirement about acting in accordance with the license rules; users are expected to follow the copyright notice, but no structured condition exists.


• Blue Oak: Users must not intentionally do anything that violates the license rules. This built-in good-faith requirement helps ensure compliance and can affect license continuation under the Excuse clause.

Plain-language clarity:

• MIT: Very short; legal wording may be ambiguous.


• Blue Oak: Written in plain, modern English; easier for developers and organizations to understand.

1. Relicensing

• User does not need to add code to relicense: they can take Blue Oak code as-is and distribute it under a different license (e.g., GPL).


• User can add code and relicense the resulting derivative work under a different license.


• User can modify the original code and relicense the resulting derivative work under a different license.


• This is legally allowed - it's a core feature of permissive licenses like Blue Oak, MIT, BSD (2-Clause & 3-Clause), Apache 2.0 and others.


• The only thing you normally can’t do is claim that the original author released their contribution under your new license (see copyright notice preservation below).

2. Copyright Notices

• The third party cannot remove the original author's copyright notice; Blue Oak requires that the original copyright be preserved.

3. Original License Remains

• The third party cannot retroactively restrict use of the original code.


• The original code remains available under the original license, such as Blue Oak, so it can still be used under the original permissive terms.