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Open Source Initiative Approves Microsoft Licenses


Two of Microsoft’s Shared Source licenses are now OSI-sanctioned

By David Worthington
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October 17, 2007 —  The Open Source Initiative (OSI) board yesterday approved the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) and the Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL) for inclusion in OSI’s library of officially sanctioned open source licenses.

The deliberation did not take long: Microsoft submitted the licenses for consideration and review on Aug 10. Acting OSI president Michael Tiemann wrote in his blog that the decision was informed by an overwhelming—yet not unanimous—consensus from the open source community that the licenses satisfied the criteria of the open source definition.

Tiemann remarked that the spirit of the dialog was constructive and followed established policies and procedures. “The formal evaluation of these licenses began in August and the discussion of these licenses was vigorous and thorough. The community raised questions that Microsoft (and others) answered; they raised issues that, when germane to the licenses in question, Microsoft addressed.”

OSI founding board member and former president Russ Nelson called Microsoft’s motives into question in his own blog entry, stating, “How can they be attacking Open Source projects on one hand, and seeking not only to use open source methods, but use of the OSI Approved Open Source trademark? Nobody knows for sure except for Microsoft.

Microsoft extended its gratitude to both Nelson and Tiemann. Jon Rosenberg, the director of source programs at Microsoft, lauded the “wide diversity” of opinions from the open source community and promised to continue to solicit its feedback.

Rosenberg added that Microsoft will delineate between its Shared Source Licenses that meet the open source definition and those that do not, based upon the feedback it received. The Microsoft Limited Community License (Ms-LCL), Microsoft Limited Permissive License (Ms-LPL) and Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL) are not open source licenses.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of great code come out under these two open source licenses and we are happy to be able to call them 'OSI Approved,' ” he wrote for his Port 25 blog.





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