Public domain software is not open-source?

Matthew Flaschen matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu
Sun Mar 2 04:17:29 UTC 2008


Tzeng, Nigel H. wrote:
> ESR and Bruce's comments seem FAQ worthy about Public Domain software
> being Open Source (if the source is in fact available) despite the
> lack of a license (by definition).

Public domain is certainly not a license, so it can't be an approved 
open source license.  But, as recent as 2006, OSI believed that PD 
software with complete source code was open source.  This is shown by 
the history bar at the left of 
http://web.archive.org/web/20061117035007/http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php 
.  I think this was lost in translation during the website switch.

Matt Flaschen



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