OSI Certification Mark and Program
The Open Source Definition spells out the essential
qualities of open source software. Unfortunately, the term "open source"
itself is subject to misuse, and because it's descriptive, it can't be
protected as a trademark (which would have been our first choice). Since
the community needs a reliable way of knowing whether a piece of software
really is open source, OSI is registering a certification mark, OSI Certified, for this
purpose. If you see this mark on a piece of
software, either the software really is being distributed under a license
that conforms to the Open Source Definition, or the distributor is misusing
the mark and thereby breaking the law.
The OSI Certified mark applies to software, not to
licenses. What people really want to know is that a package consisting of
software together with its accompanying license is an open source
distribution. Also, licenses alone probably wouldn't qualify as "goods",
which is what the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office registers certification
marks for. However, software authors obviously have to be able to identify
their distributions as OSI Certified Open Source software,
when appropriate, without asking us ("self-certification"). So
certification comes in two steps:
- OSI maintains a list of open
source licenses that conform to the Open Source Definition, have been
through public scrutiny, and have been approved by us. If you have a
license that you would like added to this list, please contact license-approval@opensource.org,
which starts the process described here.
- If you want to use the OSI Certified mark on your
software, you can do this by distributing the software with an approved
license from the list and marking the software appropriately, as described
here.
The above was just a summary. Here are the details on getting licenses
approved, and on using the OSI Certified mark on your
software.
- Put the license on a web page in HTML form. We will
convert it into the same style as the existing approved licenses. You can help us by
publishing it in that style yourself to save us the conversion step.
- Tell us which existing OSI-approved license is most similar to
your license. Explain why that license will not suffice for
your needs. If your proposed license is derived from a license we have
already approved, describe exactly what you have changed. This
document is not part of the license; it is solely to help the
board understand and review your license.
- Explain how software distributed under your license can
be used in conjunction with software distributed under other
open source licenses. Which license do you think will take
precedence for derivative or combined works? Is there any
software license that is entirely incompatible with your proposed
license?.
- Send your proposed license by email to license-approval@opensource.org.
Indicate in the email whether you want the license posted to the
license-discuss list with your identification or anonymously. (We are
willing to consider licenses that the author doesn't want posted at all, but
since community review is an important part of the approval process, we will
have to circulate such licenses privately to individual reviewers: because
of this, licenses not posted to license-discuss at all may take longer to
approve, and are likely to require more interaction with you.)
- If we find that the license does not conform to the Open Source
Definition, we will work with you to resolve the problems.
- At the same time, we will monitor the license-discuss list and work
with you to resolve any problems uncovered in public comment.
- As part of this process, we may also seek outside legal advice on
license issues.
- Once we are assured that the license conforms to the
Open Source Definition and has
received thorough discussion on license-discuss or by other reviewers, and there are
no remaining issues that we judge significant, we will notify you that the
license has been approved, copy it to our website, and add it to the list
below.
You may use the OSI Certified mark on any software that is
distributed under an OSI-approved license.
To identify your software distribution as OSI Certified,
you must attach one of the following two notices, unmodified, to the
software, as described below. The full notice is:
This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software.
OSI Certified is a certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.
The shorter notice is:
OSI Certified Open Source Software
Each form of distribution of your software has its own requirements:
- If the software is being distributed in electronic form (not in tangible
form), you must put the full notice in a README file, or other similar file
intended to be the first file that a human user would read.
- If the software is being distributed in tangible form, you must do all of
the following that are applicable:
- If the software is distributed with any accompanying printed matter, you
must place the full notice in the printed matter.
- If the software is distributed on removable information media such as
diskettes, CD-ROM, cartridge tape, etc., on which it is physically possible
to place at least the shorter notice in a manner that can be read by the
unaided human eye without impairing the functioning of the media, you must
place either the full or the shorter notice on the media.
- If the tangible object containing the software is distributed in a package
that prevents the notice (if any) on the object from being read, you must
place the full notice on the outside of the package.
If none of the above apply to your distribution, contact us, and we'll add
guidelines for your situation to this list.
You can also browse a list of OSI-approved licenses.
Revised April 30, 2001
|
More Open Source Initiative Documents
opensource.org home page
|
