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Open-source commitment

The most important promise OHTF makes is that a Foundation Project cannot be closed. If you contribute to an OHTF project, or build your product on one, the code will not be taken away from you.

This commitment is written into Open Health Technology CIC's Articles of Association (Articles 37 and 38), and it is entrenched: it can only be changed if every voting member of the company agrees. That is the strongest protection a company's constitution can give.

What OHTF must do

  • Publish the source code, build and deployment configuration, and tests for every Foundation Project it owns or controls, under an OSI-approved open-source licence.
  • Publish other project material, such as documentation, under a licence that allows free use, study, modification and redistribution.
  • Keep a public source-code repository, or an equivalent public channel, for that material.

What OHTF must not do

OHTF must not, directly or through anyone acting for it:

  • Withdraw or try to revoke an open-source or other public licence it has granted.
  • Release a new version of a Foundation Project as proprietary or source-unavailable.
  • Impose contractual, technical or other restrictions that stop the public using the rights an open-source licence gives them.
  • Transfer or exclusively license a Foundation Project unless the public's rights are preserved and the recipient is bound by the same commitment.

What is still allowed

OHTF can charge for hosting, support, implementation and training, and can start separate projects. What it cannot do is restrict rights in Foundation Project material, or present closed material as a version of a Foundation Project.

Narrow exceptions

A temporary departure is allowed only where the law, a court order or a regulator requires it, or where the directors decide, on documented technical advice, that a short restriction is needed to deal with an imminent and serious security vulnerability, for example holding back a fix until it can be safely released.

Any such exception must be:

  • as small and as short as possible;
  • recorded in the directors' minutes with the reason, scope, evidence and planned end date;
  • reviewed at least every 90 days;
  • explained publicly where that is lawful and safe; and
  • lifted as soon as it is no longer needed.

No exception can revoke rights that have already been granted under an open-source licence.

Why entrenchment matters

The CIC asset lock is set by statute. The open-source commitment is OHTF's own addition, so it is protected by entrenchment rather than by law. Separately, open-source licences already granted to the public generally cannot be revoked, so released versions stay open whatever happens to OHTF.