“Open Source” Definition and Criteria##

According to opensource.org, “Open source software is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. Open source software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition.” Such a license, again according to opensource.org, is a license whose distribution terms include and comply with the following criteria:

  • Free Redistribution by any other party without first requiring a royalty or fee
  • Source Code must be included in any distribution or obtainable for no more than a “reasonable reproduction cost”
  • Derived Works and modifications must be allowed and must be allowed to be distributed under the original license
  • Integrity of The Author’s Source Code
  • No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
  • No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
  • Distribution of License applies the rights granted by the license without needing an additional license
  • License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
  • License Must Not Restrict Other Software distributed alongside
  • License Must Be Technology-Neutral

Much of the OpenAFS software (the portions of the code delivering what makes OpenAFS OpenAFS) is licensed under the IBM Public License. Many other files are covered by other open source licenses including BSD, MIT Kerberos, and Apache. Additional files are in the public domain.

The source code for OpenAFS is available from the OpenAFS GIT repository. Specific version releases of OpenAFS source are also downloadable from the OpenAFS.org website.