Open source

Revision as of 21:22, 24 November 2003 by 142.177.81.73 (talk) (the main "added restriction" people care about is required reintegration)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Open source refers to a software licence where source code access is regulated by set of published principles. There are many such licenses.

Free software is open source with added restrictions on the copyright, that cannot be revoked without violating the license under which you originally acquired the code. The most notable of these added restrictions is the required reintegration clause.

Consortium licenses may be open source or not or mixed so that "members" have source code access and others do not.

A Green software license probably would not qualify, as it would restrict unpaid use to Green purposes and might forbid some uses entirely.

Shared source is not open source, as it is controlled tightly by one vendor, e.g. Microsoft.