Closed source vendors hijack the term “open”

“News flash to old-school software vendors: an “API” doesn’t
make your product “open” and it certainly doesn’t make it “open
source.” For the second time in two days, I’ve seen product
marketing claiming a product was open because the vendor supplies
an application program interface. Phooey.

“Products are open source only if users of that product can see
the source of the product itself. And, to my way of thinking, a
product is REALLY only open source if it is also covered by a
certified open source license. And vendors that REALLY want to sell
their product on the merits of it being “open” and “open source”
should offer a license that is certified by the Open Source
Initiative. Better still, the OSI has certified several dozen
licenses. Want to be open? Choose one that is widely accepted (i.e.
BSD, GPL, Eclipse).

“The press release that got my ire up this morning was issued by
General Telecom, which released some additional features to its
RouteNGN software…”

Complete
Story