Open-sourcing

Open-sourcing, or "software liberating" is the act of releasing previously proprietary software under an open source/free software license.

Notable software packages which have been open sourced, or liberated, include:

• Netscape Navigator, the code of which became the basis of the Mozilla web browser
• StarOffice, which became the base of the OpenOffice.org office applications suite
• Global File System, was originally GPL'd, then made proprietary in 2001(?), but in 2004 was re-GPL'd.
• SAP DB, which has become MaxDB, and is now distributed (and owned) by MySQL AB
• Interbase database, which has become Firebird

Before changing the license of software, distributors usually audit the source code for third party licensed code which they would have to remove or obtain permission for it's relicense. Backdoors and other malware should also be removed as they may easily be discoverd after release of the code, as happened with Interbase[https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/247371].