OSI Approves Microsoft License Submissions

The Open Source Initiative has approved the license submitted by Microsoft. In a press release it stated "Acting on the advice of the License Approval Chair, the OSI Board today approved the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) and the Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL). The decision to approve was informed by the overwhelming (though not unanimous) consensus from the open source community that these licenses satisfied the 10 criteria of the Open Source definition, and should therefore be approved."

This decision was not an easy one for those concerned, as threats from Microsoft around patents continue, and ill will from its attempt to make OOXML a standard have distressed the open source community. Ultimately however it was decided that principle must come first, and that each license should be considered only on the merits of the license, not on who is proposing the license.

In no way does the approval of Microsoft licenses mean that the OSI endorses Microsoft or any software released under the new licenses. However, we do encourage Microsoft to release more software under these licenses or other open source licenses, or more importantly, to begin to respect established standards rather than attempting to redefine standards to suit its business interests.