Legal Definitions - BSD license

BSD license stands for Berkeley Software Distribution license.

A BSD license is a type of software license known for being exceptionally "permissive." This means it grants users extensive freedom to use, modify, and distribute software, even allowing them to incorporate the software into proprietary (closed-source) products. Unlike some other open-source licenses, a BSD license typically imposes minimal restrictions, primarily requiring that the original copyright notice and the license text itself be included with any redistributed versions of the software. It does not generally require that derivative works (software built upon or modified from the original) also be released under an open-source license.

Here are some examples of how a BSD license might apply:

• Developing a Commercial Product: Imagine a small software company creating a new mobile application that helps users manage their finances. To speed up development, they decide to use a publicly available, BSD-licensed encryption library to secure user data. Because the library is under a BSD license, the company can integrate it directly into their proprietary, for-profit application without being required to make their entire mobile app's source code public. Their only obligation is to include the BSD license text and copyright notice for the encryption library within their app's documentation or "about" section.
• Academic Research and Customization: A team of university researchers is working on a project to model climate change. They find an existing scientific simulation tool, released under a BSD license, that provides a good starting point. The researchers can freely modify this tool to fit their specific research parameters, add new features, and even share their customized version with other research institutions or publish it as part of their findings, all without needing to release their modifications under the same open-source license. They simply need to acknowledge the original BSD-licensed component.
• Hardware Integration: A consumer electronics manufacturer is developing a new smart home device, such as a smart thermostat. They choose to use a BSD-licensed operating system kernel (the core part of an operating system) as the foundation for their device's firmware. This allows them to build their own proprietary software and user interface on top of the kernel, keeping their unique innovations confidential, while still benefiting from the robust, open-source foundation. The manufacturer would simply ensure that the BSD license and copyright information for the kernel are accessible, perhaps in the device's user manual or an "information" screen.