Microsoft Trims Source Code Licenses

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.

"This type of license is commonly referred to as a reciprocal source code license and carries specific requirements if you choose to combine MCL code with your own code," noted Matusow. "The MCL allows for both non-commercial and commercial modification and redistribution of licensed software and carries a per-file reciprocal term."

Lastly, the Microsoft Reference License, or MRL, is designed solely for the viewing of source code. It prohibits modification and distribution, and is primarily aimed at technologies such as development libraries.

Explaining the reasoning behind the changes, Matusow said, "We had 10+ Shared Source licenses and as more and more product groups sought to use source code releases as a means to work with developer communities, this number was only going to rise further."

Added Matusow: "3 is better than more than 10."