Microsoft Bans Open Source for Windows Phone 7
Open source is not welcome on the official marketplace for Windows Phone 7 apps. Application developers who want to publish their work on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Marketplace may not license the code under licenses such as GPLv3, Affero GPLv3 or LGPLv3, it is clear from the licensing agreements that developers have to accept when they use the service.
Here are parts of the agreement:
“The Application must not include software, documentation, or other materials that, in whole or in part, are governed by or subject to an Excluded License, or that would otherwise cause the Application to be subject to the terms of an Excluded License.”
“Excluded Licenses include, but are not limited to the GPLv3 Licenses. For the purpose of this definition, “GPLv3 Licenses” means the GNU General Public License version 3, the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3, and any equivalents to the foregoing.”
This comes from Red Hat’s open source prophet Jan Wildeboer who has looked into the agreement. Jan emphasizes that he is not a lawyer and that the blog reflects his own personal opinions. All open licenses are not prohibited, however. BSD, MIT/X11, the Apache license and Microsoft’s own MS-PL (permissive license) is fine to use.
