Who owns open source software?

Have you actually ever modified any open source @philodygmn? If you download it and make changes and use it locally that is one thing. If eventually you decide to share… that is something else. Maybe people stop at part one and never do part two.

To make my position clear: I am a software developer. I download open source all the time. And I make software for my own use. I NEVER share it with anyone. And accordingly, I don’t give a rats ass about the license.

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The enforceability and scope of the license itself is unaffected, is my point: you don’t own derivative works unless the license lets you. Now, IMO, it’s outrageous to disallow derivative works like that, but being open source has nothing to do with whether or not that’s allowed, it’s freedom that does.

I kind of wish I never asked. But if you all can’t agree, no wonder I couldn’t follow! :grin:

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One thing I think you can understand with confidence is that “open source” means only exactly what it says. The question of ownership is where things can begin to become complicated, and often as not control over what changes are accepted is out of user control (rarely is anyone excluded from submitting changes). A final version may be in a proprietary owner’s sole control, or a rough consensus amongst an egalitarian community. The term “open source” controls none of those factors, just whether or not the source is made available to other than a proprietary owner (in cases where such exists).

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yeah i remember confusing OSS with FREE yrs ago. Not the same.

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