Open source software: legal risk, licence compliance, audits and governance checklist for organisations

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Free and open source software (OSS)

Free and open source software (OSS) is a collective term for software released under a licence that gives the recipient rights to use, alter, and share it—whether in its original form or a derivative—usually without charge or royalty, and for which the software’s source code is accessible. This stands in contrast to the software licences lawyers are more accustomed to, which may seek to stop the licensee from accessing the source code, using the software across multiple users, locations or computers, and from making and distributing copies. Free and open source software (often called ‘FOSS’) emphasises freedom rather than restriction. Although it is typically provided free of charge (gratis), the ‘free’ in ‘free software’ is intended to indicate liberty, not price. Another acronym, ‘FLOSS’, is occasionally used, where the ‘L’ stands for ‘libre’. While there are many advantages to employing OSS (and many widely adopted OSS projects are stable, well-developed and cost-effective), there are some downsides, as well as considerations to weigh during selection and deployment process...

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Web page updated on 20/05/2026

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