8.1. Open Source Benefits and GitHub Sponsors
"Open source" gets used loosely in everyday conversation, but the exam treats it precisely — as something defined by a license, not by visibility.
💡 First Principle: Open source software grants specific usage rights — to view, modify, and redistribute code — but those rights come entirely from the license attached to the project, not from the project simply being visible on GitHub. A public repository with no license grants none of those rights by default (see 3.1). GitHub Sponsors turns appreciation for that work into direct funding: it lets anyone sponsor an open-source maintainer or project financially, recurring or one-time, directly through GitHub.
⚠️ Exam Trap: "Open source" is defined by license terms, not by visibility. A public repository is not automatically open source — without an explicit license, default copyright law still applies, exactly as covered in 3.1.
Reflection Question: A maintainer's project is popular, public, and has no LICENSE file. Is it accurate to call that project "open source"? Why or why not?
