Dear OSI community,
I’d be remiss if I didn’t open by wishing Linux a happy 35th birthday. I can’t pretend to have accomplished nearly as much by the age of 35 as Linux has, but neither was I nurtured by such a vast community of contributors and supporters. We can’t lose sight of that. Open Source is what it is because of the people who led us here, and keep us here. We all joined the community for different reasons, but many of us stayed because of the relationships and partnerships we built along the way, connections that run deeper than the code.
I get asked almost every day about the future of Open Source. One of my consistent answers is that people who love writing code will keep wanting to write code together. I believe that’s as true today as it was before AI tools, Git, the OSI, the World Wide Web, Perl, or C entered the chat. But we’re also passing through a moment of unquestionable transition. AI tools and agents are testing our processes, policies, laws, licenses, and beliefs in real time.
That’s why the OSI is engaged with several stakeholders, including the Mozilla Foundation, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Linux Foundation, and the Open Forum for AI. We recently encouraged the Linux Foundation to submit the OpenMDW License for review and we worked together with the Open Forum for AI on a statement in supporting calls for the U.S. to develop more open models. We need to understand whether the licenses and processes we’ve historically used for software will serve us as we think about Models and AI Systems. That process will be messy. It requires discussion, debate, and working through the problem. That’s a feature, not a bug.
And that brings me back to the people. We’ll be hosting an OSI track at All Things Open on October 20 in Raleigh, where we’ll share an overview of our work over the last year, a look at what we’re thinking about for 2027, and some thought-provoking content for newcomers and seasoned veterans alike. I hope you’ll join us. You can view the schedule here.
Warm regards,
Duane O’Brien
Executive Director, OSI
PS: If you’ll be celebrating Linux’s 35th Anniversary at Open Source Summit Europe on October 9-10 in Prague, I’ll be there celebrating with you. Let’s have a chat!
News from the OSI #
We Must Open the Frontier: OSI, OFAI Support Calls for the U.S. to Develop More Open Models
The OSI joins the Open Forum for AI (OFAI) in supporting calls for the U.S. to develop more open models.
Open Weights Are Good. Open Source Is Better.
With openness in AI making headlines, we must educate policymakers, producers, and users of these technologies about what open-weight and Open Source AI mean for the four software freedoms: the freedom to use, study, modify, and share without the need to ask for permission from the rights holder.
OSI brings the State of the Source to All Things Open 2026
The OSI is coming to All Things Open with a track designed to connect developers with the big policy conversations shaping our ecosystem.
OSI in the news
- [The U.S. Needs More Open Models](https://www.openforumai.org/news/us-needs-more-open-models) – Open Forum for AI
- [Attacked by A.I. Agents, This Start-Up Embarked on a Crusade](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/technology/hugging-face-open-source-ai-attack.html) – The New York Times
- Nvidia acquires Hugging Face after Stripe nabs OpenRouter: here’s what open source AI builders should do – VentureBeat
- [Open-Weight AI Model Licensing](https://www.reuters.com/practical-law-the-journal/transactional/open-weight-ai-model-licensing-2026-09-01/) – Reuters
- [What are ‘open’ AI models?](https://www.computerworld.com/article/4213156/what-are-open-ai-models.html) – Computerworld
- What’s the difference between proprietary, open weight, and open source AI? – Fast Company
- A study of cybersecurity literature on open-source software and AI – UK Government
- Linux Foundation Submits OpenMDW AI License to Open Source Initiative –Techstrong.ai
- Open Weights Are Not Open Source, And It Matters Now In The Boardroom – Forbes
- Open weights are not open source: Why AI’s favorite label is under dispute – The Register
News from OSI affiliates and community #
News from OSI affiliates and partners
- **ASF** :[Annual report for the 2026 fiscal year](https://apache.org/foundation/docs/FY2026AnnualReport.pdf)
- **Creative Commons** :[Guidance on Using CC Licenses in an AI Ecosystem](https://creativecommons.org/2026/09/03/guidance-on-using-cc-licenses-in-an-ai-ecosystem)
- CURIOSS :Closing the Skills Gap– How Academic OSPOs are leading the way with Open Source Internships
- **Debian** :[Debian votes to let contributors code with AI](https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/08/30/debian-votes-to-let-contributors-code-with-ai/5293421)
- **Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund** :[Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund Missive 1/2026](https://newsletter.infrastructureinsights.fund/digital-infrastructure-insights-fund-missive-1-2026/)
- Eclipse Foundation :EF Releases Free Toolkit to Help SMEs Prepare for the EU Cyber Resilience Act
- **FSFE** :[Copyrightability of LLM-generated code: Can we license “vibe code” into Free Software?](https://fsfe.org/news/2026/news-20260825-01.html)
- **FSFE** :[Free Your Android: Let’s test Free Software android distributions](https://fsfe.org/news/2026/news-20260904-01.en.html)
- **Linux Foundation** :[35th anniversary of Linux](https://www.linux.com/linux35th)
- Linux Foundation :Open Secure AI Alliance Joins the Linux Foundation to Build a Shared, Open Defense Stack for the AI Era
- Mozilla Foundation :How Challengers Thrive and Competition Survives In Today’s Ecosystem
- **Mozilla Foundation** :[Mark Zuckerberg says the future of AI is for everyone. But who owns it?](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/13/mark-zuckerberg-future-of-ai)
- **Open Forum for AI** :[Two-Year Retrospective & Prospective Roadmap](https://www.openforumai.org/news/strategy-report-2026)
- **OpenChain** :[CRA Compliance Requirements & Checklist](https://cra-compliance.openchainproject.org/CRA_Checklist_latest.html)
- **Open Knowledge Foundation** :[Why AI governance starts with data management](https://govinsider.asia/intl-en/article/why-ai-governance-starts-with-data-management)
- **OpenLLM Europe** :[Who is building open language models in Europe](https://openllm-europe.github.io/European-OpenLLM-Projects/)
- **OpenUK** :[Survey – Mapping the open source value chain (and who sits where)](https://openuk.uk/mappingtheopensourcevaluechain/)
- **OSTIF** :[OSTIF Reaches 100th Audit Publication!](https://ostif.org/100th-audit-publication/)
- **Python Software Foundation** :[Announcing the PSF Strategic Plan 2026](https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2026/09/announcing-psf-strategic-plan-2026.html)
- **Software Heritage** :[Open Source: The connective tissue of Open Science](https://www.softwareheritage.org/2026/08/13/open-source-connective-tissue-open-science/)
- **The PHP Foundation** :[Digital Sovereignty Is Written in PHP](https://thephp.foundation/blog/2026/09/02/digital-sovereignty-is-written-in-php/)
- **Tor Project** :[Funding internet freedom together: results from our first participatory funding round](https://blog.torproject.org/funding-internet-freedom-together/)
- **WordPress Foundation** :[AI Creates Opportunity While Artists Ship at WordCamp US 2026](https://wordpress.org/news/2026/08/wcus-2026-recap/)
News from community members
- [How Linux Took Over the World: 35 Years in 35 Facts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffl2DFHoZdY) – Jono Bacon
- [Tracking trends in AI policy across open source communities](https://sunnydeveloper.com/tracking-trends-in-open-source-ai-policy) – Emma Irwin
- [Supporting Openness & Safety — Lessons From Recent State Laws](https://www.techpolicy.press/supporting-openness-safety-lessons-from-recent-state-laws/) – Derek Slater
Research and white papers #
Open Science, Sovereignty, Licensing, and AI
- The Turing Way handbook to reproducible, ethical and collaborative data science (The Alan Turing Institute)
- Free/libre and open source software: Visions of openness from the Global South (GISWatch)
- Building Sustainable Connectivity: Free and Open Source Software Adoption for Community-based Internet Providers (Connect Humanity – D//F)
- A study of cybersecurity literature on open-source software and AI (UK Government)
- Digital sovereignty (UK Parliament Post)
- National Support Structures and Capabilities for growing Digital Sovereignty through Sharing and Reuse of Open Source Software in the Public Sector (Digitaliseringsstyrelsen)
- [Open Source Software Licensing in University Technology Transfer](https://casrai.org/guides/open-source-software-licensing-tech-transfer) (CASRAI)
- [Catching License Changes Before They Cost: Leveraging LLMs to Analyze License Evolution in Open Source Software](https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3774748) (ICSE-Companion ’26)
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Freeriding and Rebellion: An Investigation of Open Source Vendor Relicensing and Member Hard Forking Events (Information Systems Journal)
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“We Permit the Use of AI, but […]”: The Landscape of AI Policies in Popular Open Source Projects (ACM TOSEM – under review)
Events #
Upcoming events
- [OPEN @ UNGA 81](https://creativecommons.org/event/open-unga-81-a-conversation-on-collaboration/) (September 21, New York)
- [UN Digital Cooperation Day](https://www.un.org/digital-emerging-technologies/content/un-digital-cooperation-day) (September 21, New York)
- [Open Source Congress and Stakeholder Day](https://opensourcecongress.org/) (September 22-23, Halifax)
- European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) Webinar (September 24 – Online)
- [Open Source Summit Europe](https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-europe/) (October 7-9, Prague)
- [Open Source Conference](https://conference.opensource.lu/) (October 7, Luxembourg)
- [All Things Open](https://2026.allthingsopen.org/) (October 18-20, Raleigh)
- [Open Technology Research Symposium](https://symposium.opentechresearch.org/) (October 26-27, Barcelona)
- [Code & Compliance](https://codeandcompliance.orcwg.org/) (October 27, Brussels)
- [Mozilla Festival](https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/festival/) (October 28-30, Barcelona)
Check the top 50+ Open Source conferences of 2026 that the OSI is tracking, including events that intersect with AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and policy.
Thanks to our sponsors #
New sponsors and renewals
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Automattic
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Socket.dev
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See all sponsors Interested in sponsoring, or partnering with, the OSI? Please see our Sponsorship Prospectus and our Annual Report. Please ** contact the OSI** to find out more about how your company can promote open source development, communities and software.
Support OSI by becoming a full member #
Hundreds of individuals and organizations worldwide join as members and support as donors or sponsors of the OSI. They trust in our neutral stewardship of open source licensing and our role in enabling a global community. Get involved!