[Linux-aus] Who defines Open Source?

[Leon Brooks]

On Wednesday 08 February 2006 05:59, Avi Miller wrote:
> Question: Who is responsible for defining what Open Source actually
> is? Following from that, are the OSI the only organisation capable of
> determining whether or not a licence is Open Source?

In essence, OSI. The Free Software Foundation get to be gatekeepers of 
is (not) Free/Libre. Debian also have their own standards which rule in 
Debian and to a certain extent their many derivatives.

OSI have been very reluctant to approve additional licence types because 
there are already many, and very few concievable situations not already 
covered by one of them. Some of the larger companies have been 
*deleting* their licence variants and switching to a more mainstream 
licence, in part for the same reason.

Doing your own licence and getting it right is hard work, or in other 
words expensive. Much better to use something which already works. 
Perhaps your corporate leaders can understand it in those terms?

Cheers; Leon

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