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<p><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;">It is time to bring up the question of whether or not EPrints 3.4 and beyond is open source software.</span><br>
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<div>The answer to this question is determined by the license under which EPrints 3.4 is distributed.</div>
<div>These are Open Source software licenses: https://opensource.org/licenses</div>
<div>EPrints 3.3 has a GPL license.</div>
<div>What about EPrints 3.4? Is it distributed under a GPL license?</div>
<div>I ask this, because Eprints Services keeps referring to something called "managed availability", is that a new license?</div>
<div>The name "managed availability" doesn't sound like the name of an open source license, but perhaps "managed availability" doesn't refer to a new (closed source?) license, and EPrints 3.4 is still distributed under a GPL license?<br>
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<div>What would be the equivalent of "managed availability" in the world of journal article availability? Not open access, right?</div>
<div>I think we deserve to have a clear answer to this, so that we can think about the implications for the community that has contributed to EPrints.</div>
<div>I saw on a slide from EPrints Services during the OR conference something like this:</div>
<div>"Open source software models have their limitations"</div>
<div>That may be so, but I, for one, am deeply committed to open source software in the open access repository space.</div>
<div>Open source is a value and a culture. It also has many advantages, and I probably don't need to list in detail on this list because you are all well aware of them, but let me just use a quote from a 2010 paper where I commented on my choice of EPrints:</div>
<div>"low initial cost, accessibility to evaluation without a limited trial period, availability to develop software enhancements without the need to convince a corporation of the enhancement’s financial viability".<br>
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<div>Tomasz Neugebauer<br>
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