For example, if I use some open source code that is licensed with an MIT license in my (commercial) project, does my project in turn have to be under the MIT license or do I have to distribute the MIT license or anything like that?
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For example, if I use some open source code that is licensed with an MIT license in my (commercial) project, does my project in turn have to be under the MIT license or do I have to distribute the MIT license or anything like that?
No, the MIT license (similar to the BSD license) is very permissive in this regard. You can mostly do with libraries (and other software) released under this license whatever you want. Just if you bundle code from an MIT-licensed project with your own project, you, as far as I can tell, have to keep the license and copyright header of the affected files in place. For details read the license carefully 🙂
The term you are looking for here is “viral”. If a license has a viral nature, software A under that license used in software B affects the license of software B. With MIT as with BSD you should be on the safe side. On the other hand, there are some opensource license that are viral or at least have some traits of a viral license.
I’m not a lawyer, though, so it might be better to ask someone dealing with the legal sides of software licensing