Is it possible to use MIT-licensed code in "public domain" projects?

Hi -
I have a license question relating to the MIT license.
The license says that “without limitation” it is possible to “use, copy, modify… and sublicense” code released under it, "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.”

So, what I was wondering is - does that mean that it is possible to use MIT-licensed code in a “public domain” project, and to “sublicense” (relicense) that code as “public domain”?

( I’m not specifically thinking of Haiku code here, but MIT-licensed code in general, so I apologise if this is a bit off-topic. )

I’ve seen a few MIT-licensed projects elsewhere, and what I was thinking of doing is as follows. Let’s say I create a public-domain app called “foo”, and include some code from the MIT-licensed “bar” project. I would do that as follows -

"Acknowledgements - Code in the foo project is released to the public domain. The foo project would not have been possible without the use of code from the bar project.

The bar project is licensed under the MIT license.
( MIT License text here… ) "

( Btw, I’m in New Zealand, which may have a somewhat different approach (more relaxed) to “public domain” apps than other countries do. )

So, I was wondering - is that kind of scenario acceptable or legitimate? It does seem to meet the requirements of the MIT license, but it’s good to have comments from others… :slight_smile:
Many thanks in advance -

  • latte

I am not a Lawyer, but I don’t think you can do that because the license states that the Copyright always applies. To put something into the Public Domain normally means that there is no Copyright holder but the public, and would involve stripping the work of its original Copyright holder.

Ok, understood - I’m glad I asked!
Thanks very much for that, that seems to clarify things really well. I’ll leave it at that then and won’t use the code I was thinking of using (which wasn’t from here, btw…).
Thanks again - bye for now -

  • latte