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Text of the page (random words):
pters of the term open source was the ambiguity of the english word free which can refer either to freedom or to mere monetary price this ambiguity was also given by the osi founders as a reason to prefer the new term see what does free mean anyway and similar language on the marketing for hackers page both from the original 1998 web site in the 1990s the term open applied to software source code was sometimes used to imply source code being merely inspectable or visible or available going back further in the 1980s there were uses of open in the computing industry that primarily connoted something like absence of hardware vendor lockin osi s term open source as defined in the open source definition makes clear that open source specifically entails not mere inspection access but also conveying to recipients the perpetual right to fork covered code and use it without additional fees the fsf uses a shorter four point definition of software freedom when evaluating licenses while the osi uses a longer ten point definition the two definitions lead to the same result in practice but use superficially different language to get there this history has led to occasional confusion about the relationship between the two terms sometimes people mistakenly assume that users of the term open source do not intend to communicate a philosophical point of view via that term even though many actually do use it that way another mistake which has occasionally been seen since about 2008 is to assume that free software refers only to software licensed under copyleft licenses since that is how the fsf typically releases software while open source refers to software released under so called permissive i e non copyleft licenses in fact both terms refer to software released under both kinds of license neither term binds exclusively to one set of associations or another however it is always question of context and intended audience when you sense a potential misunderstanding you may wish to reassure your audience that the terms are essentially interchangeable except when being used specifically to discuss the history or connotations of the terminological difference itself some people also prefer to use the term free and open source software or foss floss free libre and open source software for this reason see also our history page for more information about the history and usage of the term open source what is copyleft is it the same as open source copyleft refers to licenses that allow derivative works but require them to use the same license as the original work for example if you write some software and release it under the gnu general public license a widely used copyleft license and then someone else modifies that software and distributes their modified version the modified version must be licensed under the gnu gpl too including any new code written specifically to go into the modified version both the original and the new work are open source the copyleft license simply ensures that property is perpetuated to all downstream derivatives there is at least one copyleft license the affero gpl that even requires you to offer the source code under the agpl to anyone to whom you make the software s functionality available as a network service however most copyleft licenses activate their share and share alike requirement on distribution of a copy of the software itself you should read the license to understand its requirements for source code distribution most copyleft licenses are open source but not all open source licenses are copyleft when an open source license is not copyleft that means software released under that license can be used as part of programs distributed under other licenses including proprietary non open source licenses for example the bsd license is a non copyleft open source license such licenses are usually called either non copyleft or permissive open source licenses copyleft provisions apply only to actual derivatives that is cases where an existing copylefted work was modified merely distributing a copyleft work alongside a non copyleft work does not cause the latter to fall under the copyleft terms for more information look at the text of the specific copyleft license you re thinking of using or see the wikipedia entry on copyleft c f permissive licensing what is a permissive open source license a permissive license is simply a non copyleft open source license one that guarantees the freedoms to use modify and redistribute but that permits proprietary derivative works see the copyleft entry for more information is some program open source only if it uses one of the approved licenses and releases appropriate software can i call my program open source even if i don t use an approved license please don t do that if you call it open source without using an approved license you will confuse people this is not merely a theoretical concern we have seen this confusion happen in the past and it s part of the reason we have a formal license approval process see also our page on license proliferation for why this is a problem is some license an open source license even if it is not listed on your web site in general no we run all licenses through an approval process to provide an accepted standard on which licenses are open source and we list the approved ones be dubious of claimed open source ness for licenses that haven t gone through the process see also the license proliferation page for why this matters so much is a license an open source license if it is just a few words different from a license listed on your web site many older licenses such as the bsd license have several variations that differ only by a few words or sentences unfortunately it is not possible for osi to approve every variation so we cannot say if a specific variation is approved where possible please avoid using these variants and instead use the same version used on the osi website what about software in the public domain is that open source for most practical purposes it is sort of this is a complicated question so please read on public domain is a technical term in copyright law that refers to works not under copyright either because they were never in copyright to begin with for example works authored by u s government employees on government time and as part of their job are automatically in the public domain or because their copyright term has finally lapsed and they have fallen into the public domain not all jurisdictions have a public domain and it doesn t always mean exactly the same thing in the jurisdictions that do have it furthermore even where it is clear what it means it s still not a license to be subject to a license a work must still be in copyright that means there is no way for the public domain as a concept to go through the osi evaluation and approval process we wouldn t be evaluating a license text instead we would have to somehow evaluate the laws themselves in different jurisdictions and say which jurisdictions have a public domain that meets the open source definition and does not create problems for software authors and users this would be very difficult because it would mean evaluating not just the statutes but various bodies of case law for example open source licenses usually have a strong disclaimer of liability for the copyright holder but we don t know how or whether the author would be protected from liability for software released into the public domain in various jurisdictions this approach would not be useful to the osi s mission because open source is an international phenomenon and we only want to approve licenses that meet the open source definition everywhere thus we recommend that you always apply an approved open source license to software you are releasing rather than try to waive copyright altogether using a clear recognized open source license actually makes it easier for others to know that your software meets the open source definition it also enables the protection of attribution and various other non restrictive rights that cannot be reliably enforced when there is no license there are certain circumstances such as with u s government works as described above where it is not easy to apply a license and the software must be released into the public domain in these cases while it would be inaccurate to display the osi logo or say that the license is osi approved since there is no license nevertheless we think it is accurate to say that such software is effectively open source or open source for most practical purposes even though it is not officially released under an open source license this is assuming of course that in the laws of releasing jurisdiction the meaning of public domain is compatible with the open source definition after all the freedoms guaranteed by open source licenses are still present and it is possible for the familiar dynamics of open source collaboration to arise around the software for a detailed discussion of the complexities of the public domain and open source search for the words public domain and pd in the subject headers of the january 2012 february 2012 and march 2012 archives of the osi license review mailing list and if the thought of reading all those conversations is daunting please take that as more evidence that it s just better to use an approved open source license if you can see also the cc0 question for a different viewpoint than the one presented above see unlicense org what about the creative commons cc0 cc zero public domain dedication is that open source at this time we do not recommend releasing software using the the cc0 public domain dedication creative commons zero is a legal device known as a public domain dedication it is essentially a statement of intent by the copyright holder to waive copyright ownership in the work that is the copyright holder wishes to place the work into the public domain because such a waiver is perhaps surprisingly not possible in all jurisdictions cc0 also contains a public license fallback clause that goes into effect should any part of the waiver for any reason be judged legally invalid or ineffective under applicable law the fallback is essentially a copyright license that is very similar to an open source license in that it gives up most of the restrictive powers associated with copyright and allows redistribution and modification of the work in february 2012 creative commons submitted cc0 to the osi for approval as an open source license requesting that the osi evaluate the public license fallback section since the rest of the text is a waiver of rights rather than a license an unexpectedly intense and detailed discussion followed search for cc0 and creative commons zero in the subject headers of the february 2012 and march 2012 archives of the osi license review mailing list cc0 was not explicitly rejected but the license review committee was unable to reach consensus that it should be approved and creative commons eventually withdrew the application the most serious of the concerns raised had to do with the effects of clause 4 a which reads no patent rights held by affirmer are waived abandoned surrendered licensed or otherwise affected by this document while many open source licenses simply do not mention patents it is exceedingly rare for open source licenses to explicitly disclaim any conveyance of patent rights and the committee felt that approving such a license would set a dangerous precedent and possibly even weaken patent infringement defenses available to users of software released under cc0 see also the public domain question distributing and using open source software what if i do not want to distribute my program in source code form or what if i don t want to distribute it in either source or binary form if you don t distribute source code then what you are distributing cannot meaningfully be called open source and if you don t distribute at all then by definition you re not distributing source code so you re not distributing anything open source think of it this way open source licenses are always applied to the source code so if you re not distributing the source then you re not distributing the thing to which an open source license applies you might or might not distribute binaries that s a separate question but while some open source licenses allow you to distribute binary code without distributing the corresponding source it is only the source code that can be open source the binaries alone cannot be open source because you re not making any source code available to be open if someone else distributes the source code under an open source license then that s still open source of course note that copyleft open source licenses require redistributors to make source code available under certain circumstances for example see the gnu general public license and gnu affero general public license see also the what is distribution question which open source license should i choose to release my software under you can choose any license from the open source licenses listed starting here opensource org licenses most people select one from the popular category but you are free to choose any listed license if this is your first time choosing an open source license we recommend that you find someone who has experience with open source licensing and talk to them about your project that will help you choose the most appropriate license the person doesn t have to be a lawyer it could be a developer who has experience releasing open source code the section choosing a license at the civic commons wiki may be useful and you can learn more about open source licenses from section 3 2 of the ebook introduction to free software by hernandez jimenez barahona pascual and robles and karl fogel s book producing open source software chapter 2 choosing a license and applying it which open source license is best unlike bilateral copyright licenses which are negotiated between two parties and embody a truce between them for business purposes multilateral copyright licenses of which open source licenses are a kind are community agreements they express the consensus of how a community chooses to collaborate they also embody its ethical assumptions even if they are not explicitly enumerated when that consensus includes giving permission to all to use study improve and share the code without prejudice the license is an open source license the open source definition provides an objective test of evaluating that such a license is indeed an open source license and delivers the software freedom we all expect since licenses are the consensus of communities it is natural that different communities will have different licenses that communities with different norms will find fault with the licenses used by others and that all will regard their way as optimum the arguments over this will be as deep as the gulf between the philosophical positions of th...
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