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.:: Document Index ::.

*The Open Source Definition
*The Halloween Documents
*OSI Press Releases
*OSI Certification Mark
*OSI Approved Licenses
*Peru prefers Open Source
*OSI's History in connection to OSI Site History
*Graphics and Trademarks

Policy Statements:
License Proliferation

.:: OSD change log ::.

*1.0 identical to DFSG, except for addition of MPL and QPL to clause 10.
*1.1 added LGPL to clause 10.
*1.2 added public-domain to clause 10.
*1.3 retitled clause 10 and split off the license list, adding material on procedures.
*1.4 Now explicit about source code requirement for PD software.
*1.5 allow "reasonable reproduction cost" to meet GPL terms.
*1.6 Edited section 10; this material has moved.
*1.7 Section 10 replaced with new "Conformance" section.
*1.8 Section 1: replaced "may not" with "shall not".
*1.9 Section 9: removed rationale referring to the action of the GPL as Contaminat[ion].
* Section 10 added.
* Site History

.:: Conformance to the OSD ::.

(This section is not part of the Open Source Definition.)

We think the Open Source Definition captures what the great majority of the software community originally meant, and still mean, by the term "Open Source". However, the term has become widely used and its meaning has lost some precision. The OSI Certified mark is OSI's way of certifying that the license under which the software is distributed conforms to the OSD; the generic term "Open Source" cannot provide that assurance, but we still encourage use of the term "Open Source" to mean conformance to the OSD. For information about the OSI Certified mark, and for a list of licenses that OSI has approved as conforming to the OSD, see the OSD Certification Mark page.

License Proliferation

The Open Source Initiative has chartered a committee to address the issue of license proliferation. Our first action is a tiering project. We plan to take all the existing OSI-approved licenses and group them into three tiers:

a) Preferred
b) Recommended but not preferred
c) Not recommended

These tiers are intended to help people pick licenses for new projects. The tiering project is not intended to "de-approve" any OSI-approved license.

View the Committee Charter.

The members of the committee are:
-Mitchell Baker
-John Cowan
-Damien Eastwood
-Rishab Ghosh (observer)
-Bryan Guerts
-Laura Majerus
-Russell Nelson
-Karna Nisewaner
-Dianne Peters
-Eric S Raymond
-Cliff Schmidt
-McCoy Smith
-Sanjiva Weerawarana (observer)

We have two email lists:
license-proliferation (subscribe by sending email to license-proliferation-subscribe@opensource.org) This list is for committee members to post to. View Archive

license-proliferation-discuss (subscribe by sending email to license-proliferation-discuss-subscribe@opensource.org) This list is for everyone to post to. View Archive

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