vnunet: Microsoft Slams Open Source Licensing Chaos
“Microsoft has launched an attack on existing open source
‘licensing proliferation’ claiming that the system is confusing and
unnecessarily challenging for software developers.“Jason Matusow, director of Microsoft’s Shared Source
Initiative, told vnunet.com that the large number of open source
licences currently in use is counterproductive…”
LWN: FSFE on the New “Shared Source” Licenses
“‘Microsoft has walked a mile and is now standing mere inches
from the GNU (L)GPL: We fully understand that Microsoft is first
trying to get the nail of its little toe wet in the Free Software
community, and we welcome that,’ continues Greve. ‘But in the
course of time we would prefer to see Microsoft join the large
global community of commercial GNU (L)GPL vendors.’“‘For now it will be good if Microsoft starts relicensing its
portfolio under the Ms-PL or Ms-CL; but we still have to warn
people to be careful about the ‘Shared Source’ label and look at
the specific licenses: The other three licenses of the Shared
Source program are clearly proprietary and obviously do not qualify
as Free Software.’ Greve finishes…”