“Apparently having an Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved
license does matter.“Companies that had once shunned the official open source label
while still operating as open source entities are starting to adopt
a new OSI license, the Common Public Attribution License
(CPAL).“For years, numerous commercial open source startups have used a
Mozilla Public License (MPL)-plus-attribution clause to hock their
wares. Open source aficionados have long argued that this type of
license, which adds an attribution for a ‘powered by’ type of
notation in the application, is not an approved OSI license and so
is not technically open source.“The OSI and its backers have argued that, by definition, being
open source requires the blessing of the OSI. CPAL was recently
approved by the OSI and has been blessed as bona fide open source
goodness…”
Stop Whining: Let’s All Be (C)PALS
By
Sean Michael Kerner
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