Open source is a set of principles and practices on how to write software, the most important of which is that the source code is openly available.
The Open Source Definition is used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether or not a software license can be considered open source. The definition was based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens.
Under The Open Source Definition, licenses must meet ten conditions in order to be considered open source licenses. Below is a copy of the definition, with unauthorized explanatory additions. There is a link to the original unmodified text below. It was taken under fair use.
The Open Source Definition is used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether or not a software license can be considered open source. The definition was based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens.
Under The Open Source Definition, licenses must meet ten conditions in order to be considered open source licenses. Below is a copy of the definition, with unauthorized explanatory additions. There is a link to the original unmodified text below. It was taken under fair use.
- Free Redistribution: the software can be freely given away or sold. (This was intended to encourage sharing and use of the software on a legal basis.)
- Source Code: the source code must either be included or freely obtainable. (Without source code, making changes or modifications can be impossible.)
- Derived Works: redistribution of modifications must be allowed. (To allow legal sharing and to permit new features or repairs.)
- Integrity of The Author's Source Code: licenses may require that modifications are redistributed only as patches.
- No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: no one can be locked out.
- No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor: commercial users cannot be excluded.
- Distribution of License: The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
- License Must Not Be Specific to a Product: the program cannot be licensed only as part of a larger distribution.
- License Must Not Restrict Other Software: the license cannot insist that any other software it is distributed with must also be open source.
- License Must Be Technology-Neutral: no click-wrap licenses or other medium-specific ways of accepting the license must be required.
Richard Stallman originally accepted Debian's document as a good definition of Free Software, but later created the Free software definition - in part to differentiate Free Software from Open Source. In practice, licenses which meet the open source definition almost always also meet the Free software definition and vice-versa.
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