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Microsoft fails open source tests

by on30 July 2007

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Shared source licences proprietary

 

More than half of Microsoft's "shared source" software licenses fail Open Source Initiative criteria to be 'open source.

Michael Tiemann, president of the non-profit  Open Source Initiative told ComputerWorld that three out of five of Microsoft's shared-source licenses restrict source code to running only on Windows.  This contravenes a fundamental tenet of open-source licenses.

The rules state that code must be free for anyone to view, use, modify as they see fit.

Microsoft plans to submit its shared-source licenses to the OSI for approval, although it is not clear if it is going to be modified before approval.

More here.

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