# About the "advertising clause" in FreeBSD source code



## VBEnrico (Oct 12, 2014)

Hello,

I'm studying the FreeBSD source code and I've found that most of FreeBSD files are licensed under BSD license with advertising clause (I've found more than 500 files only in the /sys directory).

Does the copyright notice of FreeBSD (BSD 2 clause) overwrite the BSD advertising clause in all files?

If the answer is not, why FreeBSD (and other operating systems derived from it) doesn't mention any advertising in all of its advertising materials?


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## junovitch@ (Oct 13, 2014)

/usr/src/COPYRIGHT says that that clause doesn't apply anymore.


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## VBEnrico (Oct 13, 2014)

Hi junovitch, thanks for reply.

That clause only applies to the University of California, but there are many other files mentioning other authors.


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## ShelLuser (Oct 21, 2014)

Say VBEnrico, could you give us some specific examples? So; naming some files which license puzzles you?

Thing is; when it comes to legal issues then details matter a lot, and right now I'm a little confused as to which code files you're referring to.


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## usdmatt (Oct 22, 2014)

I'm guessing he's referring to the following point. It appears this section, or both sections 3 & 4 have been removed from a lot of the source files, but not all of them.



> * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
> * must display the following acknowledgement:
> * This product includes software developed by Charles D. Cranor and
> * Washington University.



I can see why he's asking. The names listed in this section vary among source files. Some mention universities, and some are just the names of developers. It would be perfectly reasonable to assume that the text in /usr/src/COPYRIGHT only refers to this clause when it mentions "University of California, Berkeley", seeing as it quotes a specific copy of section 3 (containing the university name), and is from the Licensing Director of University of California, Berkeley.

Of course I've seen many products advertised that are based on FreeBSD, and I don't ever remember seeing a big list of names mentioned.

If all these developers and universities were working as "contributors" with UC Berkeley, then the 1999 notice may cover all the source files. However, as the notice mentions 





> the foregoing paragraph of those BSD Unix files containing it is hereby deleted in its entirety


 you'd think someone would have gone through and deleted them all by now.


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## VBEnrico (Nov 6, 2014)

I have done very deep research. I've found that many other developers have the same problem, for example: http://archive09.linux.com/feature/59456

As usdmatt suggested: "Of course I've seen many products advertised that are based on FreeBSD, and I don't ever remember seeing a big list of names mentioned."

They do! I saw a lot of user manual by Sony, Mercedes, etc. which at the beginning or end of the documents there was many sentences like "This product includes software developed by ...."

Googling examples:

AskF5:
https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/pro...M_config_guide_943/ltm_frontmatter.print.html

Sony F65:
http://www.manualslib.com/manual/741680/Sony-F65.html?page=116

And many others.


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