Microsoft 'Shared Source' Licenses Officially Go Open Source

By Angela Natividad | Oct 18. 2007

Tags: cpal, microsoft, microsoft public license, microsoft reciprocal license, ms-pl, ms-rl, open source, open source initiative, osi, shared source, socialtext

The Open Source Initiative has officially approved a pair of shared source licenses Microsoft recently submitted. This means the licenses in question are officially open source.

For those going, "Huh?" on account of the endless drama going down between Microsoft and the open source community, the OSI addresses that in a statement:

"In spite of recent negative interactions between Microsoft and the open source community, the spirit of the dialog was constructive and we hope that carries forward to a constructive outcome as well."

The OSI acts as a kind of gatekeeper for Open Source Definition and its license review process. In July, the collective officially approved Socialtext's Common Public Attribution License after nine months.

Formal evaluation of Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) and Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL) began in August.

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