The MIT License is a highly permissive open-source license originating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1980s. It allows users broad freedom to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and even sell the software, provided the original copyright notice and license text are included in all copies or significant portions of the software. Unlike copyleft licenses like the GPL, the MIT License does not require derivative works to remain open source, making it compatible with proprietary software. Its concise, non-restrictive nature has made it the most popular license on GitHub as of the mid‑2020s, underpinning major projects such as React, Node.js, Ruby on Rails, and jQuery.
