# VTK Change of License?
**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-change-of-license/1727
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [September 9, 2019, 9:01pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-change-of-license/1727 "2019-09-09T21:01:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lorensen](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/lorensen)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 9:01pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-change-of-license/1727/1 "2019-09-09T21:01:31Z")
I noticed [this MR](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/merge_requests/5953) is changing the VTK License from Apache 2.0 to the 3 clause BSD license. What is the reasoning behind this change?
Here is a [summary of the differences](https://snyk.io/blog/mit-apache-bsd-fairest-of-them-all/).
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### Author:  [@utkarshayachit](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/utkarshayachit)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-change-of-license/1727/2 "2019-09-09T22:35:08Z")
There is no change in license. This is just a WIP to explore a few ideas for organizing the license/copyright information in all the source files. I was waiting to post to discourse once I have enough free cycles to devote to it … but looks like the cat is out of the bag.
Anyways, the motivation is to move license/copyright information stubs out of each source file and instead place them in some common files that are referenced in the headers/sources. That way, when the copyright needs to be updated, for example, there’s just 1 place to update it.
Eventually, the modularization system will support processing these files to give run-time information for all licenses/copyrights affecting the modules enabled for a particular build.
p.s. the [README.md](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/tree/master#license) in VTK says the following, that’s where I got the draft text for the source file header from, is that incorrect?:
```auto
VTK is distributed under the OSI-approved BSD 3-clause License.
```
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2019, 12:34am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-change-of-license/1727/3 "2019-09-10T00:34:01Z")
Bill, are you thinking of ITK’s license, which is Apache 2.0?
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### Author:  [@lorensen](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/lorensen)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-change-of-license/1727/4 "2019-09-10T00:58:48Z")
Phew. Retaining the current license and providing a link to license and a common place for copyrights makes a lot of sense.
Thanks