Microsoft bans open source on Windows Phone 7 Marketplace

Microsoft has prohibited open source software running on Windows Phone 7 (WP7) from being sold at its apps store.

Buried in Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace Application Provider Agreement, the document that all developers for WP7 have to follow, is article 5 clause 6 which states, "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." That sounds fair enough, until you go back up the document and read the definition of an Excluded License.

Microsoft's Excluded License for Windows Phone Marketplace is defined as "any license requiring, as a condition of use, modification and/or distribution of the software subject to the license, that the software or other software combined and/or distributed with it be (i) disclosed or distributed in source code form; (ii) licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or (iii) redistributable at no charge. Excluded Licenses include, but are not limited to the GPLv3 Licenses." It continues, "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."