New license request: Open WebUI License

[prabhu]

License Name
Open WebUI License

License Homepage URL
https://docs.openwebui.com/license/

Reference URLs
https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/LICENSE

License Notes
Open WebUI License: Explained

Effective with v0.6.6 (April 19, 2025):

Open WebUI’s license is now:

BSD-3-Clause based, with an additional branding restriction clause:

You may NOT alter, remove, or obscure any “Open WebUI” branding (name, logo, UI marks, etc.) in any deployment or distribution, except in the circumstances below.
Branding must remain clearly visible, unless:
You have 50 or fewer users in a 30-day period;
You are a contributor, and have gotten written permission from us;
You’ve secured an enterprise license from us which explicitly allows branding changes.
All code submitted/merged to the codebase up to and including release v0.6.5 remains BSD-3 licensed (no branding requirement applies for that legacy code).

CLA required for new contributions after v0.6.5 (v0.6.6+) under the updated license.

This is not legal advice—refer to the full LICENSE for exact language.

[DennisClark]

@prabhu thanks for providing the license details.

New license LicenseRef-scancode-open-webui-2025 created in DejaCode enterprise and public. Proprietary Free with modification restrictions.

@AyanSinhaMahapatra please synchronize when you have time, thanks. Note that this license includes the complete BSD-3-clause text along with additions, so detection may be a bit tricky.

[pombredanne]

There is a lot of weird history for this:

• The original license of this project was Apache open-webui/open-webui@5cd4946
• Then MIT open-webui/open-webui@9a220ed
• then CC-BY-NC-SA open-webui/open-webui@edef7b1
• with an MIT-like modified license on top open-webui/open-webui@de227b5
• Then MIT again open-webui/open-webui@9c05761
• Then BSD open-webui/open-webui@a76068d
• and eventually some purely proprietary license with various conflicting terms that will likely make a lawyer cringe
  https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/23b9354cf6575bfe82e67df0660128d5a92461fc/LICENSE

[armijnhemel]

• and eventually some purely proprietary license with various conflicting terms that will likely make a lawyer cringe
  https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/23b9354cf6575bfe82e67df0660128d5a92461fc/LICENSE

Just for fun I have asked a lawyer if the cringe part is true.

-update- the lawyer cringed.

[pombredanne]

@armijnhemel this was likely written by a non-legally trained person.

[choeppler]

New license LicenseRef-scancode-open-webui-2025 created in DejaCode enterprise and public. Proprietary Free with modification restrictions.

@AyanSinhaMahapatra please synchronize when you have time, thanks. Note that this license includes the complete BSD-3-clause text along with additions, so detection may be a bit tricky.

@AyanSinhaMahapatra, will this license be synchronized to https://github.com/aboutcode-org/license-expression, as well? That would be great... 😄

[AyanSinhaMahapatra]

@choeppler yes, I have a couple more licences to sync and I will update and release licence-expression right after. 😊

[AyanSinhaMahapatra]

Added in #4478, added also to licensedb and license-expression v30.4.4 , closing.