What License Does Matter.js Use?

This article provides a clear overview of the software license governing Matter.js, a popular 2D physics engine for the web. It explains the specific terms of its distribution, what developers are legally permitted to do with the library, and the requirements for integrating it into personal, academic, or commercial projects.

Matter.js is distributed under the MIT License. The MIT License is one of the most popular, permissive, and developer-friendly open-source software licenses available. Created by Liam Brummitt, the project grants users extensive freedom to utilize, adapt, and share the codebase with very few restrictions.

Key Permissions of the MIT License

Under the MIT License, anyone using Matter.js is granted permission to:

• Commercial Use: You can incorporate Matter.js into proprietary and commercial applications, games, and websites without paying royalties or fees.
• Modification: You are free to alter, adapt, optimize, or completely rewrite parts of the source code to suit your specific project requirements.
• Distribution: You can distribute the original software or your modified versions to end-users or other developers.
• Private Use: You can use and modify the library internally without being required to release your modifications publicly.
• Sublicensing: You can grant others the rights to use the software under terms you define, provided you adhere to the original conditions.

Requirements and Obligations

The MIT License imposes only one primary requirement:

• Copyright and Permission Notice: You must include the original copyright notice and the full MIT license text in all copies or substantial portions of the software. When bundling or minifying JavaScript code for production, this is typically satisfied by keeping the license comment header intact at the top of the file or including it in a dedicated open-source attributions file.

Limitations and Liability

Like most permissive open-source licenses, the MIT License includes an explicit disclaimer of warranty:

• "As Is" Basis: Matter.js is provided without any warranty of any kind, express or implied.
• No Liability: The authors or copyright holders cannot be held liable for any claim, damages, or other liability arising from the use of the software.

Because Matter.js uses the MIT License, developers can safely integrate this physics engine into both open-source and closed-source software with minimal legal overhead.