SOSS Fusion 2024

Open Source is everywhere today, but it’s easy to forget that this wasn’t always the case and that today’s ubiquity is the result of lots of hard work over the last several decades. Outside of the obvious maintenance and development, a tremendous amount of work has gone into crafting, reviewing, and approving licenses that align with the Open Source Definition itself to promote interoperability, openness, and the exchange of ideas. Today, we’re unfortunately seeing a rise in new licenses that don’t comply with the requirements, definition, or philosophy of Open Source itself. While every business needs to do what it must to survive, many of these efforts are misinformed, short-sighted, and fail to consider the impact these “faux-pen” source licenses will have on the sustainability of the broader ecosystem.