For Approval: Microsoft Community License

[John Cowan]

Microsoft is adding new licenses to its Shared Source Initiative which
I believe qualify as open-source licenses.  The second of these is a
simple permissive license called the Microsoft Community License (MS-CL).
The HTML is online at
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/licensingbasics/communitylicense.mspx
I include the full text in plain form here for convenience in commenting.

I believe that this license should be approved by OSI even though it is
basically similar to more widely used weak-reciprocal licenses, because
it is better to encourage Microsoft in particular to release under an
OSI-approved license than not -- I think it very unlikely that they will
go back and adopt some existing license.

Microsoft Community License (Ms-CL)
Published: October 18, 2005

This license governs use of the accompanying software. If you use the
software, you accept this license. If you do not accept the license,
do not use the software.

1. Definitions

The terms "reproduce", "reproduction", and "distribution" have the same
meaning here as under U.S. copyright law.

"You" means the licensee of the software.

"Licensed patents" means any Microsoft patent claims which read directly
on the software as distributed by Microsoft under this license.

2. Grant of Rights

(A) Copyright Grant- Subject to the terms of this license, including the
license conditions and limitations in section 3, Microsoft grants you a
non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce
the software, prepare derivative works of the software and distribute
the software or any derivative works that you create.

(B) Patent Grant- Subject to the terms of this license, including the
license conditions and limitations in section 3, Microsoft grants you
a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under licensed
patents to make, have made, use, practice, sell, and offer for sale,
and/or otherwise dispose of the software or derivative works of the
software.

3. Conditions and Limitations

(A) Reciprocal Grants- Your rights to reproduce and distribute the
software (or any part of the software), or to create and distribute
derivative works of the software, are conditioned on your licensing the
software or any larger work you create under the following terms:

1.  If you distribute the larger work as a series of files, you must
grant all recipients the copyright and patent licenses in sections 2(A)
& 2(B) for any file that contains code from the software. You must also
provide recipients the source code to any such files that contain code
from the software along with a copy of this license. Any other files
which are entirely your own work and which do not contain any code from
the software may be licensed under any terms you choose.

2.  If you distribute the larger work as a single file, then you must
grant all recipients the rights set out in sections 2(A) & 2(B) for the
entire larger work. You must also provide recipients the source code to
the larger work along with a copy of this license.

(B) No Trademark License- This license does not grant you any rights to
use Microsoft's name, logo, or trademarks.

(C) If you distribute the software in source code form you may do so
only under this license (i.e., you must include a complete copy of this
license with your distribution), and if you distribute the software solely
in compiled or object code form you may only do so under a license that
complies with this license.

(D) If you begin patent litigation against Microsoft over patents that you
think may apply to the software (including a cross-claim or counterclaim
in a lawsuit), your license to the software ends automatically.

(E) The software is licensed "as-is". You bear the risk of using
it. Microsoft gives no express warranties, guarantees or conditions. You
may have additional consumer rights under your local laws which this
license cannot change. To the extent permitted under your local laws,
Microsoft excludes the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness
for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

[Note:  The Microsoft Limited Permissive License and the Microsoft Limited
Community License forbid usage on non-Windows systems and are obviously not
open source.  The Microsoft Reference License forbids modification and is
likewise obviously not open source.]

-- 
De plichten van een docent zijn divers,         John Cowan
die van het gehoor ook.                         cowan at ccil.org
      --Edsger Dijkstra                         http://www.ccil.org/~cowan