Open Source Initiative: badgeware is OSI approved now!

Michael Tiemann, President of the Open Source Initiative, recently talking about SugarCRM, SplendidCRM and Centric licenses said clearly that are abusing of the term Open Source:

THESE LICENSES ARE NOT OPEN SOURCE LICENSES.

Juggling with feet Always in control by Taomeister

Today he personally published the Common Public Attribution License: OSI eventually approved badgeware licensing as OSI compliant. Congrats to Bruce and OSI to close this old debate, well done!

Nowadays one of the open issues has been solved, but the democratic approval process still needs some tuning, since apparently OSI made some last minute changes to the CPAL license.

Never mind, I agree with Bruce saying that OSI’s approval was a success, but it was slow, and worse he happened to stand up against them just before approving their licenses, something that I can hardly define as opportune. Even if it likely brought SugarCRM to take the decision to adopt the GPLv3, though.

I am a fan of Open Source Initiative, four years ago I asked my editor to create a logo for my rubric representing also the Open Source mark, but I really wish them being transparent and to react on time.

Open Source now is ready for prime time, and we need OSI taking is role really seriously, and I suggest them also to consider changing the home page, reporting:

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) to me is about maintaining the Open Source Definition, it is a very important task, and it needs to be carried on time and with the highest transparency.

Technorati Tags: Open Source Definition, tiemann, GPLv3, badgeware, sugarCRM, socialtext