An initiative to help software developers waive their copyright and dedicate their work to the public domain by offering a standard template and process for disclaiming copyright interest in software, both for original authorship and for contributions.
Sorting out the Ethical Licensing Mess
Software developers who give the world, for free, usage rights to the code they write often use open source licenses to make this gift legally explicit. These free usage rights (and then some) are …
Keep Your Friends Close — Open Tech Strategies | Blog
One of the insider secrets of free and open source software (FOSS) is that most of the rules a project uses on a day-to-day basis are not found in the software’s license. There are contribution guidelines, which are enforced by the project only taking contributions that meet them. There are codes of conduct, which are a condition of community participation. There are endorsements, official membership, a voice in setting the project roadmap, and all kinds of other benefits that attach to varying types of community participation. In each case, entirely external to the license, there are official rules and unwritten norms that govern how participants gain the benefits of joining the civic life of a project.
When Free Software Depends on Nonfree - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
When a program is free software (free as in freedom), that means it gives users the four freedoms, so that they control what the program does. In most cases, that is sufficient for the program's distribution to be ethical; but not always. There are additional problems that can arise in specific circumstances. This article describes a subtle problem, where upgrading the free program requires using a nonfree program.
It’s time to rethink Open Source
Why developers give away valuable work for free — and what can be done to take that money back.
software
Software freedom is the freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose, to study how the program works, and change it, to redistribute copies and your modified versions so you can help others.
Software Freedom in a Post Open Source World
(Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Software Freedom)
Licenses – Open Source Initiative
The content on this website, of which Opensource.org is the author, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Opensource.org is not the author of any of the licenses reproduced on this site. Questions about the copyright in a license should be directed to the license steward. Read our Privacy Policy
Invasion of The Ethical Licenses
About 23 years ago, I created the Debian Free Software Guidelines to help the Debian developers decide what software was permissible to include in Debian, which aspired to be 100% Free Software, and what should be consigned to a "non-free" repository upon which Debian would never depend. Nine months later, those guidelines became the Open Source Definition, and I announced Open Source to the world.
Open source is NOT a business model (and your business will fail if you think that it is)
I do not agree to the use of my copyrighted content for the training of AIs, LLMs, or similar technologies.
Licenses List - Creative Commons
Creative Commons is the nonprofit behind the open licenses and other legal tools that allow creators to share their work. Our legal tools are free to use.
Licenses List - Creative Commons
Creative Commons is the nonprofit behind the open licenses and other legal tools that allow creators to share their work. Our legal tools are free to use.
Some startups are going ‘fair source’ to avoid the pitfalls of open source licensing | TechCrunch
New alternative category to 'closed source' could help companies monetize software in the open -- without going all-in on open source.
Licenses Alone Do Not Govern Behavior in Open Source
I put things here so they are on the internet
