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The "wall of legalese" that is the Apache 2.0 license does not inspire confidence in me. I feel like I would need a law degree to understand it.

I like the MIT/BSD licenses. Short, clear, understandable.




> I like the MIT/BSD licenses. Short, clear, understandable.

We might think short lines are clear and understandable and the best. But that is just for us. When it comes to law(yers), it might be interpreted in extremely insane ways.

So the terms has to be explicit, and this is why GPL/Apache have very long lines, stating each detail explicitly.

Have you ever seen any serious EULA for any proprietary software (or service) short and clear?


The "wall of legalese" is what ensures that you are protected from lawsuits. MIT/BSD licenses are shorter because they are more vague. That vagueness means they are easier to read, but harder to understand the implications of.




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