Open source is not a license. Open source literally just means that the source is openly available. It does not include the right for you to reuse or change any of the source.
That’s why most of the time, people are talking about “Free Open Source Software” (FOSS) when they think of openly licensed source code.
That’s why you can publish your project on e.g. Github (= open source) but if you don’t add a license statement, your work is still protected by an “all rights reserved copyright”. (= not free)
Anyhow, I would not necessarily deem a project OSS, just because the used language is readable by default. To me, OSS needs at least the developers intention to make it openly available.
While I agree with you , the Open Software Initiative doesn’t :
Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code.
So according to the OSI’s definition of open source , a project being public on github , but with out a license or with a license which does not comply with the requirements set out by the OSI
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose.
Well put me in a dress and call me Sheryl. Never knew that the “accepted definitions” were really that close. Thanks!
I knew that some definitions of OSS were really basic (as in “as long as there is source at some point”) but I didn’t know that the OSI definition was so close to the idea of “free software”.
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