Open Sources 2.0

Appendix A. The Open Source Definition

The Open Source Definition is maintained and applied by the nonprofit Open Source Initiative (OSI; http://opensource.org). The OSI has a board of directors made up of key people from industry and the community involved in open source. Licenses may be submitted to the OSI for review, and if, in the judgment of the OSI, they meet the terms of the Open Source Definition, the term “open source license” may be applied to them as OSI approved.

The Open Source Definition, Version 1.9

Introduction

Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost—preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of ...