Yes, in most cases. Minifying changes how code looks, not which license applies. MIT asks that its notice be included in all copies or substantial portions of the software. BSD and Apache have similar notice conditions for binary or object forms. So a distributed bundle needs its notices carried somewhere.
What the texts say
- MIT: the copyright notice and permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the software.
- BSD 3-clause: redistributions in binary form must reproduce the notice, conditions and disclaimer in documentation or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Apache 2.0: distributions in object form must give recipients a copy of the license, and carry NOTICE file attributions in one of the permitted places.
A minified, bundled file is a copy or a derived form of the original. The conditions follow it.
This post is practical guidance and not legal advice.
Where bundlers put notices
Many build tools strip comments by default. Some keep comments marked as legal or preserve ones with a particular annotation. Behavior varies by tool and setting, so test your own output rather than trusting defaults.
You have three reliable options:
- Keep legal comments in the bundle. Configure your minifier to retain license comments, then confirm in the output.
- Emit a separate notices file. Generate a file from your dependency list and ship it next to the bundle.
- Show notices in the product. A licenses page in your web app or an about screen in a mobile app.
Option two is the easiest to audit because it does not depend on how the minifier treats comments.
A test you can run
- Build for production.
- Search the output for the word license and for a few copyright lines you expect.
- If they are gone, check that your notices file exists in the deployed artifact.
- Add this check to CI so a tooling change cannot remove notices silently.
Server side rendering and hosted apps
If the JavaScript is delivered to browsers, it is distributed to users. Code that only runs on your own servers may be a different case under some licenses. That is a question for your counsel and depends on each license.
Quick check
Is a source map the same as a notice?
No. A source map helps debugging. It does not replace the notice a license asks you to carry.
Do I need notices for dev dependencies?
Only for code that ends up inside what you distribute. Bundlers may include more than you expect, so check the output.
Safeguard's SBOM and dependency scanning can list what the bundle is built from.
Sources
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
