ASF Source Header and Copyright Notice Policy | Apache Software Foundation

Introducing The ASF’s New Logo Read Now
This document describes how Apache committers and PMC members should handle source file licensing and copyright notices. It does not apply to developers outside the ASF who are applying the Apache License to their work. The appendix to the Apache License describes how others can apply the license to their work. This page also does not describe requirements for what goes in the standard LICENSE file distributed with each Apache product release, nor what are the acceptable licenses for distribution of third-party components.
Apache products are composed of lots of pieces of code across numerous source files, licensed to the ASF by various authors who maintain ownership of their contributions. When a PMC goes through the process of selecting, coordinating, and arranging all these contributions into a single product, the collective work is also protected by copyright law and is owned by the ASF -- even though each individual piece of code is still owned by its contributor. An Apache product may also include other components that were not submitted directly to the ASF, but are licensed in a way that is consistent with the ASF's licensing practices.
Considering all of these factors, this document describes how to:
This document also includes answers to Frequently Asked Questions, which we update as new questions come up on the legal-discuss mailing list.
Updates to this page are sent to the legal-discuss mailing list.
This section refers only to works submitted directly to the ASF by the copyright owner or owner's agent.
See the httpd project NOTICE example or the boilerplate NOTICE file
No. Our web sites do not have an associated NOTICE file. Instead we may soon be making the terms of such content explicit through a "Terms of Use" or "Legal Information" link in the footer of web pages. At this point, no action is required for Apache web sites.
With few exceptions, all human-readable Apache-developed files that are included within a distribution must include the header text. Documentation, including web site documentation distributed with the release, may include the header text within some form of metadata (such as HTML comments) or as a header or footer appearing in the visible documentation.
A file without any degree of creativity in either its literal elements or its structure is not protected by copyright law; therefore, such a file does not require a license header. If in doubt about the extent of the file's creativity, add the license header to the file.
It may make sense for some other files to have no license header. Three examples are:
PMCs should use their judgement, err on having a source header and contact legal-discuss@ if unsure.
Sometimes the situation of a file is such that the recommended Apache source header is not appropriate. Examples would be within images, minified JavaScript or PDFs. In those cases, the following shorter form may be used.
Provide any additional licensing information relevant to the file (ie. that would ordinarily be in the NOTICE) directly in the file when the short form is used.
PMCs should use their judgement, err on having a full source header and contact legal-discuss@ if unsure.
Yes. A header conveying the same information as the standard header in SPDX tags may be used in its place:
All three lines are required. A bare SPDX-License-Identifier on its own is not sufficient, because it conveys the license grant but not the NOTICE pointer or the contribution provenance. As with the standard header, the lines may sit within a comment or within file metadata where that is the natural place for them.
This is an additional option, not a replacement. Existing files need not be changed.
Yes. Even if there are no source files within the release, the LICENSE file and NOTICE file are still both required within every ASF distribution -- whether the unit of distribution is a .jar, .msi, .tar.gz, .zip, .exe installer, or any other file format used for distributions. For example, Windows .exe files must not be used as a unit of distribution unless they are installers and include the LICENSE and NOTICE files in their installation.
Yes. See the policy's third-party works section, particularly the requirement to ensure a license exists for each third-party work.
If the media was contributed directly to an ASF project, the contributor has the option to insert their copyright notice in the NOTICE file, as is described for source files. If the media comes from a third-party source (not contributed directly to the project), then any copyright notice that is obviously associated with the media should be copied into the NOTICE file.
License headers allow someone examining the file to know the terms governing use of the work, even when it is distributed without the rest of the distribution. Without a licensing notice, it must be assumed that the author has reserved all rights, including the right to copy, modify, and redistribute.
No. This is strictly an ASF policy. Other projects using the Apache License should still refer to the license's appendix for guidance on applying a header to their source files.
Apache and the Apache logo are trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation.
The Apache® Software Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Tax ID # 47-0825376
Copyright © 2026 The Apache Software Foundation, Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.