The LICENSE[0] doesn't say that. That's merely Open WebUI's interpretation of their own license. Now, a judge would probably consider that estoppel, but you don't want to rely on that.
Using the license on its own, you effectively are saying:
- Don't use our branding to endorse your fork
- Don't remove our branding from your fork
The only way to satisfy both of these is to not fork.
Ugh, that's a real mess - they've clearly just invented their own clauses and tacked them on to the end of the previous 3 clause BSD license.
Technically, they're allowed to do that - the BSD-3 license is itself public domain - but it's usually a pretty bad idea. Have the new clauses been written by a copyright lawyer, or at least been vetted by one?
The fact that this is Open WebUI's second license change this year should be a red flag for anyone considering contributing to or relying on their software.
Comments
The LICENSE[0] doesn't say that. That's merely Open WebUI's interpretation of their own license. Now, a judge would probably consider that estoppel, but you don't want to rely on that.
Using the license on its own, you effectively are saying:
- Don't use our branding to endorse your fork
- Don't remove our branding from your fork
The only way to satisfy both of these is to not fork.
[0] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-webui/open-webui/refs...
Also, they forgot to reformat the new clauses for 80 column text, which makes the license unreadable on the normal GitHub viewer.
Ugh, that's a real mess - they've clearly just invented their own clauses and tacked them on to the end of the previous 3 clause BSD license.
Technically, they're allowed to do that - the BSD-3 license is itself public domain - but it's usually a pretty bad idea. Have the new clauses been written by a copyright lawyer, or at least been vetted by one?
The fact that this is Open WebUI's second license change this year should be a red flag for anyone considering contributing to or relying on their software.