Microsoft steps up self-policing of its OSI-approved source licenses

After pulling its "Sandcastle" documentation compiler from its CodePlex repository site for failure to comply with Open Source Initiative terms and conditions, Microsoft is ready to try releasing "Sandcastle" again under one of its OSI-approved licenses.

Sam Ramji, head of Microsoft's open source and Linux team, posted a blog entry updating readers on the Sandcastle matter. Ramji also noted that because of the Sandcastle incident, Microsoft had reviewed other projects on CodePlex and had found unspecified other cases where source was not shared as was required under the Microsoft Permissive License (MS-PL). In his July 2 blog post, Ramji noted that Microsoft has:

"found other cases where Microsoft-led projects had been licensed under the Ms-PL but hadn’t shared the source.  These have also been unpublished and will go through the same review process. "

Ramji said that Microsoft was set to repost Sandcastle to CodePlex immediately:

"I am very pleased to announce that the Microsoft SandCastle project team has reconfirmed its strong support for the Ms-PL  and is preparing to release all source code for the Sandcastle project immediately.  This was a non-trivial effort and I applaud them for it.  I think these actions demonstrate Microsoft’s desire to abide by the OSI’s Open Source Definition with regard to source code when releasing open source projects on CodePlex."

Ramji ordered the Sandcastle project removed from CodePlex and issued a formal apology to the OSI in early June because of the team's failure to release the actual source code.