Hi all,
During the last years, openwashing has become a growing issue in the Free Software community, as many companies try to associate themselves with the terms "Open Source" and "Free Software" while distributing proprietary software products.
We at the Free Software Foundation Europe want to learn more about current market practices, and we need your help!
We'd like to ask for your input on the topic of openwashing. You can share your views and experiences by answering one or several of these questions:
* How would you define "openwashing"? * What examples of openwashing come to your mind (e.g. from your country, professional network)? * Have you experienced openwashing in your project, organisation, or environment? How does it affect you and how do you deal with it? * Are you aware of cases where companies have won public tenders by openwashing? What did they do and what happened? * Do you see openwashing as a major problem for Free Software and the Free Software community? If so, why? * Do you know of any resources on openwashing (news articles and analyses, scientific papers, studies, statistics...)? * What would you suggest to face openwashing? * Do you have anything else you would like to share on the topic of openwashing?
You can contribute by simply replying to this message on the mailing list or directly to me. If you want encrypted communication, find my GPG key here [1].
If you want to share your experience without using your name or email, you can also leave a message using the following form: https://share.fsfe.org/apps/forms/s/Z6xHfa8EiXk77FFreg2R6A6T
Feel free to share this message, any input is welcome!
Best, Johannes
[1] https://keys.fsfe.org/jn@fsfe.org.asc
Hi Johannes,
Johannes Näder jn@fsfe.org writes:
- How would you define "openwashing"?
Openwashing could be described as the practise of recycling something as "Free Software" while it is not Free Software.
- What examples of openwashing come to your mind (e.g. from your country, professional network)?
Many LLM pretend to be "open source" while they are not.
- Have you experienced openwashing in your project, organisation, or environment? How does it affect you and how do you deal with it?
Yes, some software vendors pretend to publish "open source" products but key parts of the products are not released under a free license.
A more trickier example is a software released under the GNU Affero license with additional terms that make it non free.
- Are you aware of cases where companies have won public tenders by openwashing? What did they do and what happened?
A company won a public tender and promised to release the software as Free Software but never did.
- Do you see openwashing as a major problem for Free Software and the Free Software community? If so, why?
I'd say that open washing was perhaps less a problem 10 years ago, because it was easier to identify then. Nowadays, it's more difficult, with many new non-free licenses.
- Do you know of any resources on openwashing (news articles and analyses, scientific papers, studies, statistics...)?
Nope.
- What would you suggest to face openwashing?
FSF and OSI should make a joint effort to become the authority for governments when they try to define "open source" in legal texts.
- Do you have anything else you would like to share on the topic of
openwashing?
Openwashing assumes there is a dishonest intention.
Sometimes there is no dishonest intention: it is our job to convince these actors that they need to play fair and fix their marketing.
Thanks for raising this topic!
What are the legalities with open-washing? When a vendor claims that something is "open source" and fails to provide the source code under a FOSS license that sounds like fraudulent advertisement to me. Isn't that illegal, doesn't that enable consumers to sue for compensation in most jurisdictions? So isn't "open-washing" illegal?
cheers, Michael
On 5/29/24 11:10, Johannes Näder wrote:
Hi all,
During the last years, openwashing has become a growing issue in the Free Software community, as many companies try to associate themselves with the terms "Open Source" and "Free Software" while distributing proprietary software products.
We at the Free Software Foundation Europe want to learn more about current market practices, and we need your help!
We'd like to ask for your input on the topic of openwashing. You can share your views and experiences by answering one or several of these questions:
- How would you define "openwashing"?
- What examples of openwashing come to your mind (e.g. from your
country, professional network)?
- Have you experienced openwashing in your project, organisation, or
environment? How does it affect you and how do you deal with it?
- Are you aware of cases where companies have won public tenders by
openwashing? What did they do and what happened?
- Do you see openwashing as a major problem for Free Software and the
Free Software community? If so, why?
- Do you know of any resources on openwashing (news articles and
analyses, scientific papers, studies, statistics...)?
- What would you suggest to face openwashing?
- Do you have anything else you would like to share on the topic of
openwashing?
You can contribute by simply replying to this message on the mailing list or directly to me. If you want encrypted communication, find my GPG key here [1].
If you want to share your experience without using your name or email, you can also leave a message using the following form: https://share.fsfe.org/apps/forms/s/Z6xHfa8EiXk77FFreg2R6A6T
Feel free to share this message, any input is welcome!
Best, Johannes
[1] https://keys.fsfe.org/jn@fsfe.org.asc
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Hi Johannes,
On Wed, May 29, 2024 at 11:10:24AM +0200, Johannes Näder wrote:
During the last years, openwashing has become a growing issue in the Free Software community,
yes, it's a very sad practice, I would say at least for 5 years now.
- How would you define "openwashing"?
In the context of software: The attempt to call software "open source" (in theory it would also apply to Free Software, but I don't think many do that) while it does not conform to either FSF Definition, OSI Definition, or Debian DFGS.
In some cases it's very clear cut: The licenses used simply do not confirm with either of the above definitions.
In some other cases it's that some elements of software may be true FOSS, but then various other elements are propretary (so basically open core) without making that clear to the reader of e.g. a product website.
- What examples of openwashing come to your mind (e.g. from your country,
professional network)?
The most annyoing and persistent example in my personal / professional spehre is the https://openairinterface.org/ who use a custom licens that all experts I have asked persistently call not compatible with either OSI nor DFSG.
Initially they used the term "open source" a lot, I think recently they tend to use "open software" at least in some places. However, even on tehir home page they still have statements like
The OpenAirInterfaceTM Software Alliance (OSA) is a non-profit consortium to develop an ecosystem for open-source software/hardware development for the core network (EPC) and access network (EUTRAN) of 3GPP cellular networks
The same claim is on https://openairinterface.org/openairinterface-an-open-cellular-ecosystem/
I've called them out many times publicly on social media, on mailing lists and even in public presentations / conferences. They persistently ignore my complaints about it.
- Have you experienced openwashing in your project, organisation, or
environment? How does it affect you and how do you deal with it?
I would never be involved with any project or organization that practises this.
- Are you aware of cases where companies have won public tenders by
openwashing? What did they do and what happened?
I did not perform research in that area, but given that OpenAirInterface has academic research background, I would not be surprised if they managed to get public funding while claiming or implying their software is open source.
- Do you see openwashing as a major problem for Free Software and the Free
Software community? If so, why?
I see it as one of the biggest threats, as it leads to confusion and misunderstanding among users who do not have a pre-existing clear understanding of what FOSS is. Also, it is anti-competitive in a sense that there are other true FOSS projects who provide all the freedoms of true FOSS, and many people who don't do deep license research consider them equal to openwashing-non-foss projects.
- Do you know of any resources on openwashing (news articles and analyses,
scientific papers, studies, statistics...)?
nope.
- What would you suggest to face openwashing?
I would suggest to have stewards like FSF, Debian, OSI and others to have some kind of process by which a given software project can be audited with a resulting "authoritative" statement that what they do is neither Free Software nor Open Source Software.
Maybe the OSI license review process can be hacked by somebody who is not the license steward (like a random user) submitting such non-FOSS licenses for review and in the end getting the result "this license is not OSI OSD compliant"?
Hi Harald,
Am Donnerstag 06 Juni 2024 12:12:00 schrieb Harald Welte:
The most annyoing and persistent example in my personal / professional spehre is the https://openairinterface.org/ who use a custom licens that all experts I have asked persistently call not compatible with either OSI nor DFSG.
thanks for the example!
I would suggest to have stewards like FSF, Debian, OSI and others to have some kind of process by which a given software project can be audited with a resulting "authoritative" statement that what they do is neither Free Software nor Open Source Software.
At least with FSFE you can ask us in public (like here) or via the contact point for licence-questions@fsfe.org (see https://fsfe.org/about/contact.en.html)
That is not an "authoritative" statement of course, but just calling out may not be enough and might even be advertisment for a missbehaving company. In my personal experience distributing the information is another thing, like adding it to the Wikipedia page if the software has one or bringing it to the attention of distributions or other users.
Best Regards, Bernhard