The Open Source Definition, written by Bruce Perens, sets down ten points defining open source software (see www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.html for the complete definition). Here are the points, with my interpretations of what they mean to you as someone creating or using open source software:
Free Redistribution—The software creator can’t keep you from selling or giving away the software as part of your software project and the creator can’t make you pay a fee for it.
Source Code—The software creator must give you source code or make it available. Derived Works—The software creator must let you redistribute the software, with your changes, under the same license.
Integrity of the Author’s Source Code—If you modify the software, the software creator can ask you to change the name or version, to protect the original code’s integrity.
No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups—The software creator can’t say, “XYZ people can’t use my software because I don’t like them.”
No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor—The software creator can’t say, “This software can’t be used to study extraterrestrials or create recipes for moonshine.”
Distribution of License—Everyone who uses the software can use it under the same license, without needing to add a license.
License Must Not Be Specific to a Product—The software creator can’t restrict use of the code to a particular operating system or other software.
The License Must Not Restrict Other Software—The software creator can’t restrict you from distributing other software with the open source software. (The example given is that the license can’t say that the software can be distributed only with other open source software.)
License Must Be Technology-Neutral—The software creator can’t restrict the software in such as way that it must be used with a specific interface style or technology.
