Open Source licenses and principles contain the obligation to make the source code of the software available for subsequent users. It is similar to Free Software but differs in its emphasis on the economic benefits of open source methodologies.

See also the related entry on the Free Content Definition, a framework to judge open and free licenses.

Background

The Consensus of the Open Sources Initiative

Open Source projects are fundamentally similar to Free Software in that they both forbid any restriction on the free distribution of the software and on the availability of the source code. The following principles are accepted to define an Open Source project:

- no restriction on the free distribution is allowed (but payment is allowed)\ - the source must be freely available to all at no cost - changes must be accepted and distributed - the author can request a protected version number - no discrimination in usage is allowed, for every activity, including commercial usage - the rights attached to any program are for all the users all of the time - the license cannot be program specific (to avoid commercial restrictions) - the license cannot be applied to other code (such as proprietary additions) - the license must be technologically neutral (not restricted to certain devices or operating systems)

See also at http://www.opensource.org/ ; Background on the Open Source definition, by Bruce Perens, at http://www.perens.com/Articles/OSD.html

Discussion

The spectre of License proliferation

By Tom Chance:

“There are, at the time of writing, over fifty licenses approved by the Open Source Institute. There are many hundreds more “free" licenses used around the web, some by organisations looking for some extra control, others by individuals who want to tweak an existing license to their needs. If explaining the GPL to somebody takes time, imagine explaining fifty different licenses and their implications. Applied to Creative Commons, imagine how much more complex the issues I have so far discussed would become if artists could choose between over fifty licenses! The major achievement of the Creative Commons organisation has been to create a simple set of choices that produce only six licenses; these have been translated to match the legal systems of different countries, but each license retains the meaning of the original. In other words, all people need to understand are the concepts of attribution, commercial use, derivative use and the share alike clause. Each concept has a corresponding symbol that, if used universally, can become instantly recognisable. But proliferation is already happening. Creative Commons have a special sampling license, an extremely problematic idea given the ambiguity of a sample (when does it become a full remix?) and further unnecessary complication. The BBC have also adopted a license for their Creative Archive that is extremely similar to the Creative Commons licenses, but is nonetheless incompatible. Nobody will be able to remix BBC material and share it on Remix Reading. To make things worse, the BBC has devised its own symbols, making recognition of license conditions that little bit harder. This is unsurprising, because everyone’s opinions on art are quite different, so the conceptual difficulty of trying to create a handful of licenses to cover all preferences is formidable." (http://tom.acrewoods.net/writing/remixculture )

Are Open Source Licenses Obsolete?

Tim O'Reilly: Software Licenses no longer work: "once you're no longer distributing an application, none of the licenses mean squat."

Also:

More Information

The Creative Commons Licenses

The Free Content Definition Framework

The alternative IANG License

The Oekonux point of view on open licenses, by Stefan Merten, at http://en.wiki.oekonux.org/StefanMerten/LicensesAsSeenFromAnOekonuxPerspective

Key Books to Read

Open Source Software Law. by Rod Dixon

Provides a broad introduction to the area of software licensing in the information age. Helps professionals and students to understand the basic philosophy and key issues of open source license. Explains the legal framework that has been developed to support the increasingly popular Internet-based open source and free software community.

Kennedy, Dennis M. A Primer on Open Source Licensing Legal Issues: Copyright, Copyleft and Copyfuture. Available at http://www.denniskennedy.com/index.htm.

Open Source Licenses

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