How to correctly credit the authors of an MIT licensed library in this case?

Question

I'm using some modified MIT licensed code directly in my project and am concerned about how to correctly attribute it.

The code in question does not have license text in each file, only a single LICENSE file at top level. I have included the contents of that file in my own licenses file. In this file I also have the licenses for other libraries I use, but these are all unmodified and live in separate directories in the project making the origin clear.

I am concerned that this leaves it unclear as to what the origin of any particular piece of code is in my project. I'm curious if this is actually an issue and if it is, how could I manage this better?

Thanks

Answer 1

Neglecting to put their MIT license into the source files is a mistake on the part of the original authors. In your copy of the files, you can just add this for them.

In your top-level LICENSE file, there is no need to repeat the license of those files; just a brief copyright notice and a mention that they are used under a MIT license. If someone opens those files, they will see the detailed license.

In the middle of your license you can have something like.

Program uses the following files from other authors;
see their respective license headers for more details:
string.c list.c tree.c: Copyright 2013-2019 M. Y. Helper, MIT License
regex.c: Copyright 1993 Pat M. Atcher, BSD2 License