Open source license
Last updated Sep 28, 2025
Executive summary
Scoop is licensed under the MIT License, which provides broad freedoms to use and distribute the software, with simple compliance requirements. This licensing choice reflects our commitment to make Scoop accessible to the widest possible range of users and use cases in the SCORM and elearning community.
What is the MIT license?
The MIT License is a highly permissive open-source software license from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It grants extensive freedoms to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell software with minimal restrictions. Its key strength lies in its flexibility and compatibility: it allows MIT-licensed code to be incorporated into proprietary software and works well with other open-source licenses including GNU GPL. The only requirement is that users must include the original copyright notice and full license text in all copies or substantial portions of the software.
The MIT License has become one of the most widely adopted open-source licenses due to its brevity, clarity, and use in major projects like React, .NET, Node.js, and Bootstrap. It has proven to be an excellent choice for developers who want maximum adoption and minimal legal complexity.
Why did we choose the MIT license for Scoop?
The MIT license is the best and most suitable license for Scoop because educational institutions favor permissive licenses. Schools and universities often have policies against AGPL due to compliance complexity, IT departments prefer licenses with minimal legal overhead, and organizations today are working with much tighter budgets -- so it is increasingly important to maximize flexibility and minimize legal expense.
MIT is also a better license for the corporate training market because companies that build internal training systems generally avoid AGPL. In addition, consultants and integrators prefer MIT licensing for custom deployments, thanks to its simplicity and expediency.
In the software development ecosystem, many more developers are willing to contribute to projects that use the MIT license. Plugin and extension developers prefer permissive base platforms, and integration with other tools is easier.
Most successful open-source projects use MIT/Apache licensing for maximum adoption. For example, Bootstrap, .NET, and React all use the MIT license, and these are the primary technologies upon which Scoop is built.
In the Learning Management System domain specifically, organizations want hosting flexibility (i.e., they want the option to choose their hosting without worrying about source code disclosure requirements). Educational institutions want customization freedom (i.e., often they need heavy customization and want to keep some modifications private, such as student data handling and integration with internal/proprietary systems). And, of course, many organizations have procurement rules that make GPL/AGPL compliance too difficult and costly for consideration.
Our primary goal with Scoop is adoption, therefore the MIT license removes barriers and encourages the broadest possible use. Much like the education technology space, the developers who contribute to Scoop value open, interoperable solutions -- and MIT licensing aligns perfectly with our philosophy.