Tiny Link:

BSD 3-Clause License (Revised) Explained

(Open Source)

Quick Summary:

The BSD 3-clause license allows you almost unlimited freedom with the software so long as you include the BSD copyright notice in it (found below). Many other licenses are influenced by this one.“Use trademarks” in this case means you cannot use the names of the original company or its members to endorse derived products.

  • Can
  • Commercial Use
    This software can be used for commercial purposes in derivative works.
  • Modify
    This software can be modified.
  • Distribute
    The software may be distributed.
  • Sublicense
    This software allows you to give partial production/distribution rights to third parties not included in the license.
  • Warranty
    You can place a warranty on the software
  • Cannot
  • Use Trademark
    You may NOT use contributors' names, logos or trademarks
  • Hold Liable
    Software is released without warranty and the software/license owner cannot be charged for damages.
  • Must
  • Include Copyright Notice
    You must retain the original copyright notice.

None of the information on TLDRLegal should be considered legal advice. Please remember to consult an attorney.
Not the right version? Try one of these:
Full Text:

The BSD 3-Clause License The following is a BSD 3-Clause ("BSD New" or "BSD Simplified") license template. To generate your own license, change the values of OWNER, ORGANIZATION and YEAR from their original values as given here, and substitute your own.

Note: You may omit clause 3 and still be OSD-conformant. Despite its colloquial name "BSD New", this is not the newest version of the BSD license; it was followed by the even newer BSD-2-Clause version, sometimes known as the "Simplified BSD License". On January 9th, 2008 the OSI Board approved BSD-2-Clause, which is used by FreeBSD and others. It omits the final "no-endorsement" clause and is thus roughly equivalent to the MIT License.

Historical Background: The original license used on BSD Unix had four clauses. The advertising clause (the third of four clauses) required you to acknowledge use of U.C. Berkeley code in your advertising of any product using that code. It was officially rescinded by the Director of the Office of Technology Licensing of the University of California on July 22nd, 1999. He states that clause 3 is "hereby deleted in its entirety." The four clause license has not been approved by OSI. The license below does not contain the advertising clause.

This prelude is not part of the license.

= Regents of the University of California = University of California, Berkeley = 1998

In the original BSD license, both occurrences of the phrase "COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS" in the disclaimer read "REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS".

Here is the license template:

Copyright (c) , All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. Neither the name of the nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.