• News Nick Vidal Ensuring the Long-Term Sustainability of ClearlyDefined: OSI and AboutCode Sign MoU Brussels, February 2 - The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is pleased to share an important update with the ClearlyDefined and the broader Open Source communities: OSI and AboutCode have formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that establishes a new collaborative approach to stewarding and sustaining the ClearlyDefined project. • Following extensive discussion and review with the community, the OSI Board has endorsed this new model for OSI stewardship of ClearlyDefined and approved entering into the MoU. • This decision reflects a shared commitment by OSI, AboutCode, and the broader community to ensure the long-term sustainability, growth, and impact of ClearlyDefined. • ClearlyDefined Advancements and Challenges Originally developed by Microsoft and donated to OSI in 2018, theClearlyDefinedproject has grown into a global, open database of licensing and related metadata for Open Source software components. • Modern applications depend on thousands of upstream components, each with its own licensing, provenance, and metadata. • ClearlyDefined makes this information easily available in a consistent, machine-readable, and open manner, helping developers, legal teams, and organizations understand what they are using and how it can be reused.

Article Summaries:

  • On February 2, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AboutCode to jointly steward the ClearlyDefined project. The MoU formalises a new collaboration model that will secure the long‑term sustainability, growth, and impact of the open database of licensing and provenance metadata for software components. ClearlyDefined, originally donated by Microsoft in 2018, has grown into a widely used resource with contributions from major companies and foundations, and recent milestones include a 2.0 release, expanded license coverage, and integration with tools such as GUAC and GitHub’s dependency insights. The OSI board’s endorsement reflects a shared commitment to maintain and expand this critical open‑source infrastructure.

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