OSI Calls for Major

Revisions to Microsoft Permissive License"> "We are doing what we have done with all the others, which is following our promise to be fair, and so we have put these concerns to Microsoft, which has acknowledged them and is discussing what to do about them. The OSI is not in a huge rush to come out and just reject the license, especially when we know Microsoft is trying to correct these concerns," he said. Asked specifically if the MS-PL would be rejected as submitted, Tiemann said he believed it would, based on the response to, and complaints about, it. "I believe it does not meet the criteria of the definition as it stands, but I am speaking for myself and not the board, as that is what the vote is for," he said.
A blogger was unable to tempt Microsoft to drink the OSI Kool-Aid. Read more here. While Microsoft had not responded to requests for comment by the time this article was published, Bill Hilf, general manager of platform strategy for Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., has told eWEEK that Microsoft officials struggled in the past with the issue of working with an organization that it saw as deliberately and publicly trying to create sentiment against the company. "Look at it from my perspective. If I told customers we were working with open source and the OSI and they went to opensource.org and saw all the anti-Microsoft messages, what would they think? It just didnt make any sense," he said. Then, about six months ago, Hilf and his team decided the time was right for a number of reasons, including that there was a body of work already represented by the licenses. Then they started looking at what they needed to do submit the licenses to the OSI and what this would mean. Microsoft then contacted the OSI board to say the company was considering submitting its licenses, and was assured that it would be treated objectively and fairly, exactly the same as any other license submission. This all proved that the license approval process was working, and Microsoft could look to past discussions to see that it wasnt going to present OSI with anything that had not been presented to other people in similar circumstances, Tiemann said. "I am proud of how the OSI has managed this and I also know that everybody is watching and the process is going to be as transparent as possible." Click here to read about how Microsoft slashed the number of its Shared Source licenses. With regard to the status of the Microsoft Community License, the second license submitted to the OSI for approval, Tiemann said the licenses were examined separately and that the focus had been on the MS-PL until now. "I can remember hearing some criticisms that community participation and use of the MS-CL has not been very strong, but that alone is not a reason to condemn a license that is trying to build community. But, as our focus, and that of the community, has been on the MS-PL, I really cant comment on the likelihood that the MCL will be approved," he said. Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.