Missing MIT License Notice in Major Releases – Legal Notice to Maintainers

[Marak]

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Describe the bug

To: @pkuczynski @ST-DDT @Shinigami92 @damienwebdev @xDivisionByZerox @ejcheng @MilosPaunovic

I’m Marak Squires, the original creator of faker.js, released under the MIT License in 2011 with my copyright notice (“Copyright (c) 2011 Marak Squires”). Your team released a major version without this notice, accumulating millions of npm downloads over months—each one violating the MIT License’s mandatory attribution clause. You’ve since corrected it, but past distributions remain unaddressed.

This isn’t trivial. Under US law (17 U.S.C. § 106), each download without my notice is copyright infringement—potentially millions of instances, with statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work, or $150,000 if willful. For maintainers in Germany, this also risks breaching § 97 UrhG, with damages and legal fees (§ 97a UrhG). That’s lawsuits, six-figure exposure, personal liability. I’ve not pursued legal action yet—I want your response first.

This is a public notice:

• How do you explain omitting my notice for millions of downloads?
• What’s your official plan to address this period—financially or otherwise?
• How will you ensure this never happens again?

Respond here by March 10, 2025. Your replies—or silence—will guide my next steps, legal or otherwise. This is my work, my rights; dismissal only escalates matters.

Marak Squires
Original faker.js Author

Minimal reproduction code

No response

Additional Context

No response

Environment Info

Github / NPM

Which module system do you use?

• CJS
• ESM

Used Package Manager

npm