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Open Source refers to software distributed under a legal license, such
as the GNU General Public License (GPL), that permits free
distribution and require open availability of the source code. The
entire essential portions of the Linux operating system—its heart, or
kernel, and most of the utilities that make up the operating
system—are published under the GPL. There are several licensing models
for Open Source. Some require that all changes made to the source must
be freely distributed with the modified product. Other licenses permit
an organization to make changes and keep the changes private.

• Open Source licenses, such as the GPL, guarantee anyone the right to
read, redistribute, modify, and use the software freely.
•Under many Open Source licenses, including the GPL, modifications of
existing software must be distributed under the same license as the
original software. The source code to any changes or improvements must
be made available to the public.
• The GPL is one example of an Open Source license. Other examples
include the BSD license, the MIT X License, the Artistic License, and
the IBM Public License.
All accomplish the same basic objectives: free distribution and openly
available source code. All Open Source licenses meet the Open Source
Definition, which is described at http://opensource.org/osd.html.
Many people have heard that all open-source licenses are the same, and
that open-source software infects everything around it, destroying all
the proprietary value in a company's intellectual property. In fact,
there are many different licenses. Some allow commercialization for
free. Many work quite well with proprietary licensing strategies. The
two most common licenses are the General Public License, or GPL, and
the Berkeley Software Distribution, or BSD, license. The GPL allows
anyone to use, change and share the source code. If you make changes,
though, you must share them freely. The BSD license, by contrast,
allows you to keep your changes private. We can conclude that to be
OSI certified the open source software must be distributed under a
license that guarantees the right to read, redistribute, modify, and
use the software freely.