FOSSM

Free and Open Source Software licensing in Medicine

General definitions: Free and Open Source Software is often abbreviated as FOSS. Free software and Open Source software have specific definitions and legally enforceable licenses. 'Free' refers to liberty, not price as in the bill of rights. They include the rights to run, copy, study, distribute and extend the licensed software. These rights are specifically granted with Free software licenses as opposed to proprietary licenses which usually take away rights. Licenses that are considered free are determined by the Free Software Foundation Free Software Foundation and licenses that are considered Open Source are determined by the the Open Source Initiative. If a given work of software claims to be Free or Open Source but does not used licenses approved by these two organizations, it probably isn't.

Some believe that FOSS software licensing is an especially good fit for medicine and medical practice because of its fast-changing nature, relatively small market and ability by 3rd parties to readily and directly scrutinize software for privacy, security and interoperability problems.