ClearlyDefined – Open Source Initiative

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Explore the latest news, blog posts, newsletters, press mentions, and events from the OSI.
Learn more about OSI’s mission, history, people, and programs.
Explore the list of OSI-Approved licenses and learn more about the license review process.
Learn more about Open Source AI, how do we define it, and its benefits to society.
Advancing Open Source through policy, regulation, and standards.
Supporting research, education, and knowledge about Open Source.
Connecting the people and organizations that build and support Open Source.
Explore the latest news, blog posts, newsletters, press mentions, and events from the OSI.
ClearlyDefined’s mission is to create a global database of licensing metadata for every Open Source software component ever published. Having a comprehensive database is essential not only for compliance reasons, but also for security.
With the move towards SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials) everywhere, organizations will face great challenges to generate these at scale for each stage on the supply chain, for every build or release. This is where ClearlyDefined comes in, by serving a cached copy of licensing metadata for each component through a simple API.
Users will also be able to contribute back with any missing or wrongly identified licensing metadata, helping to create a database that is accurate for the benefit of all.
To learn more about ClearlyDefined, please visit our website.
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