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What it does
MIT No Attribution is the MIT grant without 'the above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included.' Amazon published it for examples and SDKs where notice overhead was the complaint. You may use, change, sublicense and sell. There is still no patent grant. Buyers who want a paper trail should still keep the SPDX id on the inventory even when the license itself asks for nothing.
Pros
- Easy to drop into a closed, paid product. Procurement has seen this family many times.
- No copyleft on your own files. You keep your source private.
Cons
- The notice duty is easy to miss in a desktop, mobile, or container build. A web page is not a substitute for notices inside the artifact.
- Transitive copies in the lockfile count. Listing only direct dependencies leaves notices out.
What it allows and requires
Choose a category to see the full grant in one scannable list. Permissions show what the license allows, limits show what it withholds, and obligations show the conditions your release process must satisfy.
Permissions
Commercial use
You may use the work commercially. These texts are written to drop almost every restriction.
Modify
You may change the work and keep or publish those changes under your own terms.
Distribute
You may give copies away, including inside a closed product, without a copyleft duty.
Limits
Hold liable
The authors disclaim warranty. Recipients cannot hold them liable for damages arising from the software, except where law forbids that disclaimer.
Use trademark
The license is not a trademark license. Names, logos and product marks stay with their owners unless a separate grant says otherwise.
Provenance
A dedication is only as strong as the author's right to make it. If title is unclear, treat the files as needing review.
Obligations
Include copyright
0BSD is a BSD text with the conditions stripped. There is no required notice, which is why policies still want the SPDX id on the record.
What MIT-0 requires when you ship
When a copy that includes MIT-0 code leaves your company, the grant is broad and the paperwork is easy to miss. Distribution here means an installer, a mobile binary, a container image, or an SDK another team embeds. Work this list against the artifact you actually hand over, not against a README. A hosted service that never gives out a copy still belongs on the record, but the notice duty does not fire until a copy exists.
You meet the notice condition when each MIT-0 component's copyright line and license text appear in the material the recipient actually gets.
You are done for a hosted service that never hands out a copy. Running the software for users over a network does not, by itself, trigger a notice duty.
You are covered for a desktop, mobile or on-premise build when the notices sit inside the artifact. An about screen or a bundled licenses file both work.
The duties named in MIT-0
The license text itself is short. These are the named conditions. They follow the code, including files you vendor into your own repository and transitive packages in the lockfile.
Include copyright
0BSD is a BSD text with the conditions stripped. There is no required notice, which is why policies still want the SPDX id on the record.
Things to be aware of
- Reading MIT-0 as no obligations at all and shipping a binary with no notices in it. Put the notices in the artifact you hand over.
- Deleting the license header when you copy one or two files into your own repository. The condition follows the code, not the package it came in.
What the MIT No Attribution does not do
Search results often flatten MIT No Attribution into a slogan. These are the usual misreads. MIT-0 is a grant with conditions, not a permission to skip the paperwork below.
- MIT-0 does not mean no obligations. The copyright line and the license text still have to travel with copies you distribute.
- MIT-0 does not force you to open your own source. There is no copyleft here unless a later clause in this text says otherwise.
How MIT-0 differs from nearby licenses
These licenses are often confused with MIT-0, but their release duties differ. Each row summarizes what the license requires when you ship. Open the linked page for the full checklist.
- MIT-0
- MIT-0 is MIT with the copyright notice condition stripped. You may use the code without reproducing the MIT text. Record the SPDX id anyway.
- MIT
- MIT lets you ship the code inside a closed, paid product. The one condition is that the copyright line and license text travel with every copy.
- 0BSD
- BSD with every condition removed: no notice, no credit. It is a permission grant, not a waiver, and that is why counsel like it.
- Unlicense
- A public domain dedication written for software, with a fallback license. OSI-approved, and it asks nothing of you.
Common questions about MIT No Attribution
Answers to common questions about what MIT No Attribution requires, when its duties apply, and what evidence belongs with a release.
What is the MIT No Attribution?
MIT No Attribution is the MIT grant without 'the above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included.' Amazon published it for examples and SDKs where notice overhead was the complaint. You may use, change, sublicense and sell. There is still no patent grant. Buyers who want a paper trail should still keep the SPDX id on the inventory even when the license itself asks for nothing.
What does MIT-0 require when you ship a product?
You meet the notice condition when each MIT-0 component's copyright line and license text appear in the material the recipient actually gets. You are done for a hosted service that never hands out a copy. Running the software for users over a network does not, by itself, trigger a notice duty. You are covered for a desktop, mobile or on-premise build when the notices sit inside the artifact. An about screen or a bundled licenses file both work.
Does MIT-0 require me to open my own source?
MIT-0 does not force you to open your own source. There is no copyleft here unless a later clause in this text says otherwise.
How do I attribute MIT-0 in a product I ship?
Attribution for MIT-0 means the copyright line and the license text travel with every copy a recipient actually gets. That can be an about screen, a licenses file inside the installer, or a notice in the container image. A public page helps a buyer audit the inventory. It does not replace notices inside the artifact. If you copied files into your own repository, the header on those files still has to stay.
Is a website notice enough for MIT-0?
No. MIT-0 talks about copies. A public attestation page is the honest list for procurement. The condition is met when the notices sit in the material you hand over. Put them in the installer, the about screen, or a licenses file inside the binary, then keep the same texts on the page.
Do transitive MIT-0 dependencies count?
Yes. The condition follows the code, not the package you chose by name. If the lockfile pulled in MIT-0 transitively and you distribute that tree, those notices travel too. Listing only direct dependencies is how teams miss the duty.
How is MIT-0 different from MIT License?
MIT-0 asks this: MIT-0 is MIT with the copyright notice condition stripped. You may use the code without reproducing the MIT text. Record the SPDX id anyway. MIT License asks this: MIT lets you ship the code inside a closed, paid product. The one condition is that the copyright line and license text travel with every copy. Open the MIT License page for what that license requires when you ship. Do not treat the SPDX ids as interchangeable because the short names look similar.
Where do I record MIT-0 for a buyer?
MIT-0 is a notice license in the catalog, so a component under it needs license text attached before it counts as live on your published page. SourceTrust fetches the published artifact, extracts the license file, and compares that text against the declared SPDX id. A match fills the text in. Every other outcome waits for a person. The stored text is what your page and each export file carry.
Where do I record MIT-0 for a buyer?
MIT-0 is a notice license in the catalog, so a component under it needs license text attached before it counts as live on your published page. SourceTrust fetches the published artifact, extracts the license file, and compares that text against the declared SPDX id.
A match fills the text in. Every other outcome waits for a person.
The stored text is what your page and each export file carry. Read /docs/auto-fetch-license for how the fetch works.
See also
The hub is the pillar for this cluster. Sibling licenses are the other spokes. Product FAQ links explain how SourceTrust records the duty, not the license text itself.
Practical guidance for procurement review, not legal advice. Confirm high-stakes use with counsel.