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United Kingdom

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Key definition

Open source software definition

What does Open source software mean? In legal practice, open source software describes software made available in source-code form under licences that permit use, copying, modification, compilation and redistribution, typically without licence fees. It is not defined in UK or Irish statute or case law; the term is descriptive and aligns with the Open Source Initiative’s Open Source Definition. The governing rules are set by the licence. Permissive licences (e.g., MIT, BSD, Apache 2.0) allow broad reuse subject to retention of notices and attribution, often with an express patent licence and a warranty/liability disclaimer. Copyleft licences (e.g., GPL, LGPL, AGPL) require that modified or combined works...

Designing and implementing free and open source software (FOSS) policies: strategy, licences, contributions, distribution risks, audits and compliance programmes

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Practice notes

A free and open source software (FOSS) strategy and policy, supported by processes that ensure compliance, should form part of any well-structured business framework for risk management. Ideally, an organisation would establish its FOSS strategy and policy before any open source code is adopted. In practice, these are often drafted following a review of the current codebase (see Practice Note: Free and open source software—audits) and the realisation that FOSS is already in place, perhaps because suppliers have included FOSS within deliverables or internal developers have used FOSS components without properly recording their use. For an example, see Precedent: Free and open source software—policy.

Why use FOSS?

A FOSS strategy should also address the rationale for its adoption within the organisation. Frequently, cost savings are the primary consideration. Although most FOSS licences do not prevent charging for the software, code is commonly made available without payment under a free licence. Nevertheless, a shift to FOSS cannot be regarded as entirely without cost. Even where no licence fee applies, there will be related expenses, and the total cost of ownership (TCO) for FOSS must be taken into account...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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