The Software is Provided “As Is”
A presentation at Upstream by Tobie Langel
Tobie Langel Principal, UnlockOpen THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”
The MIT License
MIT License (MIT) Copyright <YEAR> <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. 4
J. H. Saltzer, “The Origin of the “MIT License”,” in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 94-98, 1 Oct.-Dec. 2020, doi: 10.1109/MAHC.2020.3020234.
The Open Source Definition
Tobie Langel Principal, UnlockOpen Thanks!
With the push towards regulation around software supply chain security that’s happening both in the US and in the EU, I think it’s fundamental to anchor back to fundamentals: a shared definition of open source licenses (the OSI’s) and the liability clause of open source licenses to clarify, once and for all, that although it is essential to adopt “Shift Left” security practices, liability belongs in the contractual relationship between software providers and customers, not between maintainers and the people using that software.
