ITPEC FE Morning October 2020 Question 19

Modifying it for internal use without redistributing it does not oblige you to publish the changes — the conditions in the Open Source Definition apply to distribution.

The OSI's Open Source Definition sets out what a licence must allow: free redistribution without royalties, availability of the source code with the program, permission to modify and distribute derived works, and no discrimination against persons, groups or fields of endeavour. Its obligations are triggered by distributing the software; a company that modifies a program and uses it only in-house distributes nothing.

Answer (b)

Why not others:

• •(a) — restricting the source to one industry breaks the rule against discrimination against fields of endeavour
• •(c) — the definition requires that modified works may be distributed under the original licence's terms; it does not require the same licence, and permissive licences such as MIT or BSD allow others
• •(d) — the definition requires free redistribution, so the licence may not demand a royalty or fee from those who redistribute the software

Key rule: Open source licences govern distribution: private use and modification are free, and duties such as publishing source code apply only when the software is passed on.

Software · AI-written, may contain errors