Microsoft Trims Source Code Licenses
link: original article - section: microsoft
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it was reducing the number of Shared Source licenses it offered from more than 10 to just three. The new licenses will serve as templates for product groups within Microsoft to release source code and connect with developers.
"In this way, all of Microsoft source code releases will be under consistent terms, and thus more easy to use and to understand. The licenses are each 1 page or shorter," explained Jason Matusow, Microsoft's Shared Source Manager. "They are written in simple terms that non-lawyers should be able to follow."
The first new license, the Microsoft Permissive License or Ms-PL, is the most open of the three. It allows the user to view, modify and even redistribute the source code for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Code licensed under Ms-PL can be modified and sold, if desired.
"This license will be most commonly used for developer tools, applications and components," Matusow said.
The Microsoft Community License, or MCL, is based on the Mozilla Public License and is slightly more restrictive than Ms-PL, which follows a BSD License style.
source: betanews.com
