On the highest level, open source is the principle to allow free access to the intellectual property of the design of products to promote creativity. The term is now most often associated with software. Open source software is source code that is made available to the general public with relaxed or no intellectual property restraints that would keep another person from customizing the source code for their particular use or from building on the original source code to make use of the software for their particular use.
In early 1998, the industry leaders of the open source movement met at an event that would later become known as the “Open Source Summit.” This meeting led to the organization of the Open Source Initiative, a non-profit corporation formed to advocate the benefits of open source software. According to the Open Source Initiative, whether software can be considered open source really depends on the distribution terms of the open source software.
To meet the standards of the Open Source Initiative, the distribution terms of open source software must meet the following criteria:
1. The open source software license cannot restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of another software program containing programs from several different sources and the license cannot require any fee for sale.
2. The open source software must include source code and must allow distribution of the source code.
3. The open source software license must allow modifications and derivative works, and, importantly, must allow the modifications and derivative works to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
4. The open source software license may restrict source code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows distribution of patch files with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must permit distribution of software built from modified source code.
5. The open source software license cannot limit use to any person or group of people.
6. The open source software license cannot limit use in any field, such as for commercial purposes.
7. The rights attached to the open source software must apply to all whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license.
8. The open source software license cannot be specific to a product.
9. The open source software license cannot place restrictions on other software that is distributed with the open source software.
10. The open source software license cannot demand that a specific technology be used with the software.