Shared Source Licensing Simplified

New and simpler licenses for organizations that want to view or use Microsoft source code could encourage more developers to build software on top of the Microsoft platform and will help Microsoft product groups determine how they can best license their code for external users. However, the new licenses’ ultimate value will depend on what Microsoft code is available through the company’s Shared Source Initiative (SSI). Moreover, code that’s already available under Microsoft’s SSI will not be moved to the new licenses, resulting in more rather than less complexity for the time being.

The Value of Source Code Access

Source code is the computer instructions that programmers write. Various technologies are used to check the source code and to compile it into the binary form that computers actually load into memory and execute. Historically, source code for commercial software has been tightly controlled-Microsoft literally stores completed source code in bank vaults at the company’s headquarters, and security is tight around the product teams that develop new code.