> having a right to certain benefits or privileges
The right to contribute is a property of the project, not a property of open source, which has nothing to say on how projects are run. And for the record, I don't agree with his project management style.
> not a property of open source, which has nothing to say on how projects are run
If open source does not require that a project accept external contributions, then Hickey is right to say that you are not entitled to contribute just by virtue of being open source.
You're right that this is a more to do with the project in question than whether it's open source, but open source does compel projects to do other things. So it is not weird for Rich to clarify for users of his open source project that its being open source doesn't compel that project to accept external contributions, in the way that being open source compels them to distribute the software.
> having a right to certain benefits or privileges
The right to contribute is a property of the project, not a property of open source, which has nothing to say on how projects are run. And for the record, I don't agree with his project management style.