Let’s tackle Openwashing!
summary
FSFE defines open washing as open washing = proprietary software presented as free and backs that with a community survey, a typology of methods, and concrete cases: a public-sector product kept running only on vendor servers, Bitwarden’s nonfree repository component, ArangoDB’s 2023 relicensing, Telegram’s free client, proprietary server, and proprietary-licensed LLM releases like Grok 2.5. Consequences include lost procurement awards, vendor lock‑in, and reputational damage; suggested defenses are stricter tender criteria, market monitoring, and public watchdoging.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Introduction to FSFE
- 1:53Success of Public Money Public Code
- 4:41What is Open Washing?
- 6:26Definition and Methods of Open Washing
- 8:33Open Washing Techniques Explained
- 10:15Examples of Open Washing
- 12:43Relicensing Free Software as Proprietary
- 14:08Pseudo Open AI and AI Models
- 15:13Why Open Washing is a Problem
- 16:40Other Problems vs Open Washing
- 17:01How Public Administrations Can Act
- 17:23What We All Can Do Against Open Washing
- 18:06Call to Support FSFE
- 18:26Q&A: License Changes and Open Washing
- 19:29Q&A: Internal Company Conversations
- 20:10Q&A: Public Tender Standards
- 20:50Q&A: Open by Design vs Open Source
- 21:55Q&A: EU Exceptions for Open Source
- 22:37Q&A: Addressing Polish Government
- 23:42Q&A: Reporting Open Washing Cases
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