Software provided under a license that grants certain freedoms to a licensee, such as access to source code and free redistribution of the software. Open source software (OSS) is widely accepted and used as an alternative or complement to proprietary software. When properly used, OSS offers effective software solutions while saving significant software development time, costs, and resources. While OSS is often made publicly available without charge, this does not mean its use is unrestricted or in the public domain.

OSS license agreements can vary widely but typically include:

For more information on open source software, see Practice Note, Open Source Software.