ESR on Microsoft’s software licenses

Microsoft have recently submitted two of its software licenses to be certified as open source. This has caused controversy within the free software / open source movement, because Microsoft are notorious for the underhand tactics they have used to sabotage free software / open source.

For example, they are pushing for their proprietary OOXML file format to be made an ISO standard. As Eric Raymond (ESR) explains:

Microsoft’s behavior in the last few months with respect to OOXML has been egregious. They haven’t stopped at pushing a “standard” that is divisive, technically bogus, and an obvious tool of monopoly lock-in; they have resorted to lying, ballot-stuffing, committee-packing, and outright bribery to ram it through the ISO standardization process in ways that violate ISO’s own guidelines wholesale.

If Microsoft succeeds (which is beginning to look likely) they will have not merely damaged the prospects of open-source software, they will have ruined the good name of ISO by corrupting its people and processes. Because if OOXML, with all its huge flaws, really does pass, no one who has been conscious while this was going on is going to believe the process it passed through wasn’t a charade bought and paid for by Microsoft marketing.

Raymond concludes:

I find I’m almost ready to recommend that OSI tell Microsoft to ram its licenses up one of its own orifices, even if they are technically OSD compliant. Because what good is it to conform to the letter of OSD if you’re raping its spirit?

I agree with this sentiment. The only reason Microsoft is trying to get these licenses approved as open source is to muddy the waters, to create FUD, and to divide the community.