ITPEC FE Morning October 2020 Question 19
ITPEC FE Morning October 2020 — Question 19 of 80
Open Source Software (OSI Definition) — key rules of open-source licensing per OSI.
Core OSI principles:
- Source code must be available when software is redistributed
- No discrimination against persons, groups, or fields of endeavor
- Free redistribution — no license fee for the software itself
- License must not be specific to a product
Key rule: Obligation to publish source code is triggered by redistribution, not by internal use or modification.
- •If software is modified only for internal use (no redistribution), the modified source code does not have to be published
- •Copyleft (e.g., GPL) requires same license on redistribution — but this is a specific license type, not an OSI-wide requirement
- •Permissive licenses (MIT, BSD) allow relicensing upon redistribution
Why not others:
- (a) — OSI prohibits limiting source code publishing to a specific industry
- (c) — Only copyleft licenses require same-license redistribution; not all open-source licenses do
- (d) — OSI definition requires free redistribution; charging a license fee violates this
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