License Text Generator
How it works
MIT and BSD-3-Clause are generated as their complete, standard license text with the copyright line filled in. Apache-2.0 and GPL-3.0 instead generate the standard short-form notice each project publishes for applying its license to source files — a copyright line plus a pointer to the full license and its "AS IS" disclaimer — rather than the full, several-thousand-word legal text, which belongs in the project's actual LICENSE file, not duplicated in every source file.
Frequently asked questions
Why do Apache-2.0 and GPL-3.0 not show the full legal text?
Both licenses run to several thousand words — reproducing either in full here would not make it more correct, only harder to read. Instead this generates the standard SHORT-FORM notice each project's own foundation publishes for exactly this purpose: the Apache Software Foundation's own boilerplate for Apache-2.0, and the FSF's own "how to apply these terms" notice for the GPL. Both are the normal, widely-used way to apply their license to a project's source files; neither is a substitute for including the actual LICENSE file from apache.org or gnu.org alongside it.
Why do MIT and BSD-3-Clause show the full text instead?
Both are short enough that the full text is the normal way to apply them, and a short pointer notice is not itself a valid substitute — unlike Apache-2.0 or GPL-3.0, there is no separately-published "short-form MIT notice" convention to fall back on.
Does the year need to be the current year?
No — use whatever year (or year range) is accurate for when the work was created or last substantially changed. This tool defaults the field to the current year purely as a starting point, not a requirement.