If I plan to fork an MIT project and significantly modify and rename it, how do I handle the copyright notice above the MIT license on the main License file. Would I list the original author and my company, or just the original author? What are my legal options as far as attributing the original author? I intend to license our software under MIT as well and keep it open source.
MIT License – How to Handle Attribution and Copyright Notice When Forking a Project on GitHub?
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Best Answer
The MIT license doesn't specify attribution beyond maintaining the copyright notice.
Somewhere within the source for the project you are considering forking, there should be a
LICENSE
file or equivalent. If there isn't, then you ought to create one.The license file provides two key aspects:
To cover the first aspect, within the license file, you should state something to this effect:
And after that copyright statement, you should make sure the full text for the MIT license is listed, which covers the second aspect.