question about license approval

[Michael Reichenbach]

Hello!

There is a project with source code available for download and them 
claim to be 'free and open source'. However, them are not using an 
approved license but their own one.

I am not a part of this project.

But I would know whenever this license is really free or not.

So... If no one from the projects asks for license approval also no one 
else can be sure whenever the Open Source Definition are fulfilled or not?

best regards
Michael Reichenbach