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back to article Microsoft bans open source license trio from WinPhone

Some open-source apps for Windows Phone and Xbox have been banned from Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace. And there's uncertainty hanging over the rest. Apps licensed under GPLv3, Affero GPLv3, and LGPLv3 cannot be sold and distributed on the marketplace, according to Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace Application …

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    1. Tim Parker
      Reply Icon

      Re : It's *not* "Open Source"; it's GPLv3

      It may be aimed at GPLv3, but it doesn't appear to be limited to that. Each of the sub-clauses of section 1.l is sufficient in itself to cause the license to be classified as an Excluded License - in particular 1.l.(iii) has a much, much further reach than any of the GPL licenses. Whether anyone at Microsoft would enforce it on, e.g. a application containing or dependant upon BSD licensed software, is an interesting point - but the conditions are there to allow it AFAICS.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Love how MS get the blame here

    And barely anyone mentions the FSF - it's their shitty license that causes the problems.

    It's the same story with ZFS - Sun release ZFS under a very permissive open source license, which is so heinous to the FSF that they declare that it cannot be used in Linux, because 'Sun deliberately made it incompatible with GPL'. No, they didn't; FSF made GPL incompatible with anything thats not GPL, and they think that is a good thing.

    Just think where we would be today if the BSD socket implementation had been GPL licensed.

    Linux is the 'embrace and extend' of UNIX; in 10 years there probably won't be one interface left that hasn't been 'improved' upon with a GPL implementation that is now 'standard' (cf udev). GPL is truly evil.

    AC, I'm going to get flamed for this :/

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Hmm...

      I'd say that you're a bit wide of the mark, but not much... I do think that some of the biggest proponents of Open Source can actually be some of its worst enemies. RMS springs to mind... Many Open Source people tend to have an almost religious fervor for FOSS, which can be rather off-putting for people who want/need to have mixed FOSS/COTS environments.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Meh - Who cares...

    Basic Phone....

    Basic Phone Calls

    Uses Linux almost all the time on all systems...

    Basically doesn't give a fuck.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    haha

    This is a good thing. It means the MS platform will be as dead in the water as expected.

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  5. Mark .

    Nokia Ovi

    I forget how things work with Windows Phone - have they gone the Apple route of requiring you to release from their app store, or is it like Nokia, Android etc, where you can release anywhere?

    Admittedly it's still a problem, as in practice if you're not on the "official" store, you'll have a hard time getting people to use the app.

    I forget what the Nokia/MS announcement would mean for the Ovi Store? Will Nokia be phasing that out completely? Or do they still plan to offer than on top of Windows Phone? If the latter, we can still hope they have better conditions.

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  6. John Savard

    Solution?

    How about adding this to the GPL:

    Distributing software licensed by the GPL over a channel which, through technical means, blocks copying otherwise permitted and otherwise required to be permitted by this license, does not constitute a violation of the GPL, provided an indication is provided of how those blocked from copying the software through that particular channel may copy it in another fashion. The responsibility to provide such an indication does not fall on a distributor which did not initiate the distribution of the particular software in question.

    Which means: Microsoft is not in violation of the GPL for limiting all software, even software bought for $0.00, from being copied between devices, if somebody puts GPL software in their app store. Neither are you if you put some GPL software there, as long as you include a notice that says, "Can't copy from your device? Go and download it again, you klutz".

    Microsoft's lawyers are happy, the free software movement is happy, and everyone can just go back to sleep.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't trust Microsoft....

    " confesses he was "astonished" given Microsoft's friendly overtures to open source"

    Microsoft are behaving exactly as I expect them to behave. You make a deal with Microsoft, especially when your own company is struggling, and you've just let the vultures have at you. You don't cut deals with Microsoft when you're down because they just want to pick your pockets before burying you.

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