Adventures at an IT trade show

While at a small IT trade show I was surprised to come across an open source CMS: squiz.net. Under the slogan "Open Source. Own It. Squiz.net" They were very big on open source, one of their case studies saying:

...the use of open source software means that 100% of the resulting system is owned by [the client] including the valuable intellectual property that's been build whilst creating it—such as documentation, processes and the resulting web site code itself

All excellent sounding stuff. Unfortunately, further investigation of their licence shows that:

2.1 You agree that Squiz.Net controls all intellectual property rights (including copyright) in every aspect of the Software, including source code and related documentation.

Which hardly gels with the client owning 100% of the "web site code." Even worse:

2.8 You must Notify Squiz.Net within 30 days of making any Modifications even if You do not intend to distribute those Modifications. Notify is defined in Clause 4.2 below. If Your Modifications are incomplete, You must still Notify Squiz of the status of your progress not less frequently than once every 30 days. If You do not Notify Squiz.Net of Modifications You have made (complete or not) within 30 days, Squiz.Net may deem that you have opted to limit your obligations in accordance with Clause 3 and as such Squiz.Net may reasonably charge You the consideration indicated in Clause 3.

This clause is in conflict with Clause 3 of the open source definition which says:

3. Derived Works: The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

So the the Squiz.net CMS is not open source in the way that everyone else uses the term.

A little looking around the net shows that other people have seen through this in the past.

cheers, stuart