Richard Stallman isn't necessarily the sole authority on such things. Consider creative common vs. AGPL. Is CockroachDB "open"? etc.

In any case the software world has changed drastically since that article has been published.

Those all seem black and white. Creative Commons' NC and ND licenses are not open, but the rest are. The AGPL is open. CockroachDB is not.

you are not understanding. why is it not open? Who is the authority of "open". Why is CockroachDB not open? I can see their source on GitHub.

"open" is not like 1+1=2. ultimately it is arbitrary. one definition of open is "to make available", by that definition all of them, including CockroachDB are "open".

open does not necessarily mean you can use it, just like how an open door does not necessarily mean you can enter the house.

in any case, we can agree to disagree.

You're confusing "open" with "visible".

I literally quoted a definition from Webster for "open". let's just stop this pedantry. I'm going to go back to "Open"AI.