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OSI Approved Licenses

Question: What percentage of a project’s licenses are OSI-approved open source licenses?

Overview

This metric measures the percentage of licenses within a project that conform to the Open Source Initiative's (OSI) standards for open source licenses. OSI-approved licenses ensure that software can be freely used, modified, and shared in accordance with the Open Source Definition. By tracking the presence of OSI-approved licenses, projects can maintain transparency about their licensing practices and avoid including licenses that do not align with the open-source ethos.

This metric is important for ensuring compliance with open source licensing standards, protecting project integrity, and fostering trust within the open source community. It helps projects make informed decisions about licensing and prevents the inadvertent inclusion of non-open-source-friendly licenses.

Want to Know More?

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Data Collection Strategies

  • Extract the list of licenses from a codebase using a method similar to the one used in the License Coverage metric.
  • Compare the extracted licenses to the OSI-approved list found in the Licenses.json file provided by SPDX.
  • Calculate the percentage of files within the project that use an OSI-approved license.

Filters 

  • None specified.

Visualizations

OSI


References

Contributors

None specified.

Additional Information

The usage and dissemination of health metrics may lead to privacy violations. Organizations may be exposed to risks. These risks may flow from compliance with the GDPR in the EU, with state law in the US, or with other laws. There may also be contractual risks flowing from terms of service for data providers such as GitHub and GitLab. The usage of metrics must be examined for risk and potential data ethics problems. Please see CHAOSS Data Ethics document for additional guidance.

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