[Dave:] Can you tell us more about what does it mean for software to be opensource?
[Asa Dotzler:] For software to be opensource it means a couple of things.
First, it means that the actual underlying source code to the piece of software is freely available,
that people can acquire that from a website or off of a DVD or in some other form
and see the underlying source code that makes up that program.
But that's actually insufficient, because opensource also requires
that not only can people see it but they can do what they want with it.
They can take that piece of software, make modifications to it,
develop their own products based on top of that.
There are different licenses that opensource software operates under
that have different requirements and responsibilities for those who take that source code
and make modifications to it.
At Mozilla with the Firefox browser, our license is called the Mozilla Public License,
and it says you're free to take the source code to Firefox and go build your own browser with it.
You can do whatever you want to that source code and you can turn it into Walmart-Fox,
if you're Walmart and wanted to.
There's no requirement that you pay us for that, that you have any involvement with Mozilla.
But if you make changes that improve the software that you got from Mozilla,
you have to return those changes.
If you take a feature and you make it faster or you add a new feature,
making the browser more capable,
you're free to ship that and under your own brand for whatever your own business model is,
but you have to return those changes.
This allows Mozilla to take the work that you've done, reincorporate it into Firefox
and ship a new version that's as good as the version you shipped.
Different licenses behave in different ways.
Our license is pretty generous in that it says you can take our product
and combine it with other products,
and you don't have to disclose any of your proprietary information.
You only have to return to the Mozilla Project the pieces of our code that you altered.