Here's the source: https://github.com/freesurfer/freesurfer. It's open (according to most people's understanding of open), but it's not free for commercial use likely because of IP reasons and to avoid conflicts of interest when receiving funding from the NIH to continue development.
not free for commercial? the license is https://github.com/freesurfer/freesurfer/blob/dev/LICENSE.tx... . My reading of it says you can use it for commercial use and make derivative commercial products under your own license terms. The only thing it says is it is not FDA approved and should really only be used for research purposes, but you can do what you want, we don't accept any responsibility for your use of the software.
Large portions of FreeSurfer are covered by a different license which includes non-free terms such as
> (d) such use, reproduction, making of derivative works, display and distribution of the software is limited to non-commercial internal research and educational purposes by not-for-profit entities;
> (e) you may not use Freesurfer in research that is sponsored by a commercial entity;
> (g) you agree that this License Agreement may be terminated at any time by notice posted on Licensor applicable website if any contributor to Freesurfer with the legal right to do so demands that or compels Licensor to terminate this license.
i suspect the academic lab's definition of open source is more "loosey goosey", i.e., "is the technique published in a paper/poster and can it be reimplemented by our grad students/postdocs?" If so...Open Source(tm)!
