Monday, May 12, 2008

Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL)

This is the least restrictive of the Microsoft licenses and allows for distribution of compiled code for either commercial or non-commercial purposes under any license that complies with the Ms-PL. Redistribution of the source code itself is permitted only under the Ms-PL. Initially titled Microsoft Permissive License, it was renamed to Microsoft Public License while being reviewed for approval by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The license was approved on October 12, 2007. According to the Free Software Foundation, it is a free software license and is compatible with the GNU GPL version 3. However, for new software, FSF asks to use an older free software license that serves the same purpose, like Apache License 2.0, “to combat license proliferation”.

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