The 4-Clause BSD License

Also known as 4 Clause BSD License, 4-Clause BSD, 4-Clause BSD License, BSD 4 Clause, BSD-4, BSD-4-Clause, Old BSD License, Original BSD License.

Commercial use: allowed
Share alike: not required
Attribution: required (keep the copyright and license notices)

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Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/BSD-4-Clause

Permissions

Change license by library convention
Duties
- Use a compliant license by library convention
Charge distribution fee from the text
Commercial use from the text
Derivative works from the text
Derive from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
Display from the text
Distribute from the text
Duties
- Advertising acknowledgement from the text
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
Modified works from the text
Modify from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
Present from the text
Reproduce from the text

Prohibitions

Promote from the text

License-wide duties

This license states no duties that apply to the work as a whole.

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

No default rule of that graph reaches this license: it speaks about every act the rules are about.

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> "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.

Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT SHALL <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> 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.

Additional clauses

All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by the <organization>.

Info

Target asset types: Software
Region / jurisdiction: Worldwide
Validity: Perpetual
Source: https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause.html
Legal code: https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause.html
This description is published under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
SPDX identifier: BSD-4-Clause on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier: BSD-4-Clause

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/BSD-4-Clause",
  "license-title": "The 4-Clause BSD License",
  "spdx-id": "BSD-4-Clause",
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/BSD-4-Clause> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/BSD-4-Clause"
  }
}

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/BSD-4-Clause" rel="license">The 4-Clause BSD License</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

Badge

Markdown

[![License: The 4-Clause BSD License](https://dalicc.net/license-library/BSD-4-Clause/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/BSD-4-Clause)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/BSD-4-Clause"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/BSD-4-Clause/badge.svg" alt="License: The 4-Clause BSD License"></a>

Review

Status: Reviewed against the license text
Last checked: 2026-09-15
Reviewer: Giray Havur
Verdict: corrected during the review
Record changed since this review: yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings: 6 recorded, 2 applied to the record, 3 proposed, 1 settled in a later version

The record models the original four-clause BSD license and quotes the advertising acknowledgement in dalicc:additionalClauses. Its identification pointed at the University of California variant while the SPDX id and the quoted clause are the generic four-clause text; the URLs were corrected and a legal-code link added.

5 findings

major Rubric 1 dct:source applied

dct:source pointed at https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause-UC.html, the University of California specific license, while spdx:licenseId says BSD-4-Clause, which is the generic one. Repointed dct:source at the generic SPDX page and added the same URL as cc:legalcode, which was missing entirely.
minor Rubric 6 dalicc:additionalClauses proposed

The quoted advertising clause names the University of California, which belongs to the UC variant rather than to the generic four-clause text. Correcting a published literal is left open for the association's decision; the alternative is to change spdx:licenseId to BSD-4-Clause-UC instead and keep the clause. One or the other has to give.
minor Rubric 1 dct:publisher proposed

dct:publisher is "University of California-Specific", which is a label from the SPDX page title, not a publisher. Same decision as the clause text above.
minor Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer proposed

No warranty disclaimer, although the text carries the usual BSD paragraph. Not applied because it would be the third change to a record whose identity (generic or UC variant) is still open.
major Rubric 10 record applied

Standard-license addition of 2026-09-15, decision 9: the record was corrected against its new siblings and versioned. The review's finding on family consistency: the disclaimer paragraph held both sentences and the advertising clause had no duty. The text says 'All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement', which is the new dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement duty on distribution; dct:publisher was the placeholder 'N.N.'.

Settled in version 2 (1)

settled odrl:prohibition

dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited without textual support, same as in the other BSD records.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

The content review of 2026-09-15 added 1 clause text and 1 identification detail, changed 1 clause text and 2 identification details, recorded the relation to the record this one was adapted from and recorded the review state. Later changes brought it in line with its family and its text in the verification of 2026-09-15, permitted relicensing with the notice as a duty, recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on and named the license the record itself is published under.

View version 2 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML
17 changes
- added cc:legalcode <https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause.html>
  
  Review finding dct:source pointed at https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause-UC.html, the University of California specific license, while spdx:licenseId says BSD-4-Clause, which is the generic one. Repointed dct:source at the generic SPDX page and added the same URL as cc:legalcode, which was missing entirely.
- added dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer "THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> \"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 <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> 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."
  
  Review decision Review decision 11: the record models the generic four-clause text, not the Berkeley variant, so the advertising clause, the disclaimer and the publisher were set to the generic wording.
- changed dalicc:additionalClauses "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by the <organization>."
  
  was dalicc:additionalClauses "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors."
  
  Review decision Review decision 11: the record models the generic four-clause text, not the Berkeley variant, so the advertising clause, the disclaimer and the publisher were set to the generic wording.
- added dalicc:reviewStatus dalicc:Reviewed
  
  Review state Every record records how far it has come in the editorial workflow and when it was last checked against the legal text.
- added dalicc:reviewedOn "2026-09-15"^^xsd:date
  
  Review state Every record records how far it has come in the editorial workflow and when it was last checked against the legal text.
- added dalicc:variantKind "version"
  
  Port relation The 2026-09-15 review made the relation between a jurisdiction port and the record it was adapted from explicit in the data.
- changed dct:publisher "N.N."
  
  was dct:publisher "University of California-Specific"
  
  Review decision Review decision 11: the record models the generic four-clause text, not the Berkeley variant, so the advertising clause, the disclaimer and the publisher were set to the generic wording.
- changed dct:source <https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause.html>
  
  was dct:source <https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause-UC.html>
  
  Review finding dct:source pointed at https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause-UC.html, the University of California specific license, while spdx:licenseId says BSD-4-Clause, which is the generic one. Repointed dct:source at the generic SPDX page and added the same URL as cc:legalcode, which was missing entirely.
- added dalicc:LiabilityLimitation "IN NO EVENT SHALL <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> 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."
  
  Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency: the disclaimer paragraph held both sentences and the advertising clause had no duty. The text says 'All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement', which is the new dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement duty on distribution; dct:publisher was the placeholder 'N.N.'.
- changed dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer "THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> \"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."
  
  was dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer "THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> \"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 <COPYRIGHT HOLDER> 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."
  
  Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency: the disclaimer paragraph held both sentences and the advertising clause had no duty. The text says 'All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement', which is the new dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement duty on distribution; dct:publisher was the placeholder 'N.N.'.
- removed dct:publisher "N.N."
  
  Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency: the disclaimer paragraph held both sentences and the advertising clause had no duty. The text says 'All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement', which is the new dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement duty on distribution; dct:publisher was the placeholder 'N.N.'.
- changed permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement]
  
  was permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]
  
  Manual edit The review's finding on family consistency: the disclaimer paragraph held both sentences and the advertising clause had no duty. The text says 'All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement', which is the new dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement duty on distribution; dct:publisher was the placeholder 'N.N.'.
- added permission dalicc:ChangeLicense with duties [dalicc:compliantLicense]
  
  Manual edit Permit relicensing on permissive licences; the notice clause is a duty, not a bar. Library convention 15: a licence that asks for no reciprocity and no source code asks only that the notice travels with the copy, which is a duty on the acts it governs and not a bar on putting the copy under other terms. dalicc:ChangeLicense is therefore a permission here, and the prohibition the record carried before is removed. The text reads: "Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer." The permission carries the dalicc:compliantLicense duty, as Apache-2.0 does, because the notice has to survive the relicensing.
- removed prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense
  
  Manual edit Permit relicensing on permissive licences; the notice clause is a duty, not a bar. Library convention 15: a licence that asks for no reciprocity and no source code asks only that the notice travels with the copy, which is a duty on the acts it governs and not a bar on putting the copy under other terms. dalicc:ChangeLicense is therefore a permission here, and the prohibition the record carried before is removed. The text reads: "Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer." The permission carries the dalicc:compliantLicense duty, as Apache-2.0 does, because the notice has to survive the relicensing.
- changed permission dalicc:ChangeLicense with duties [dalicc:compliantLicense]
  
  was permission dalicc:ChangeLicense with duties [dalicc:compliantLicense]
  
  Manual edit The statement is marked as a library convention, family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing: the text does not state it in as many words. Its duty dalicc:compliantLicense is marked as a library convention, family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing.
- changed permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement]
  
  was permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement]
  
  Manual edit Its duty dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement quotes "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by the organization."
- added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>
  
  Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.
Version 1

The version this model had before the content review of 2026-09-15.

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Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.