Microsoft has made changes to the terms of use of the App Store catalog, which will be effective from next week. The most controversial change was the ban on the sale of open-source applications, which are usually free. The introduced requirement is aimed at combating third parties who profit from the sale of assemblies of popular open source programs.
The new rules are formulated in such a way that the ban on sale applies to all projects under open licenses, since the code for these projects is available and can be used to create free assemblies. The ban applies whether or not the account is associated with a direct developer, and includes apps hosted on the App Store by core projects to support development financially.
For example, publishing paid builds on the App Store has been used as one of the fundraising options by projects such as Krita and ShotCut. The change will also affect projects, such as Inkscape, which are available on the App Store for free but allow for an arbitrary amount of donation.
Microsoft officials say the decision was made because of the difficulty of identifying the true developers and the desire to protect users from the manipulation of open source software and the sale of programs that can be legally downloaded for free. When discussing the changes, the head of the App Store promised to revise the rules, adding options to them to support the development of open projects. But the rule easing mentioned refers to the use of business models that are detrimental to free and open source software, such as distributing cut-down versions of software with open source and selling a separate commercial version that includes features not available in the open source codebase.
The human rights organization Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) believes that a ban on the sale of open source software in the App Store is unacceptable, since any truly open or free system is always available for free use - developers work in public and do not interfere with the creation of modifications and the formation of assemblies for any platforms. These rights and freedoms are fundamental to free and open source licenses and apply to users and businesses alike, making it possible to profit from open source software not only to original developers but also to distributors offering user-friendly delivery methods such as placement in the App Store. For example, anyone can sell their product based on the Linux kernel if they comply with the GPL license, and this ability is one of the factors for its sustainable development.
The SFC does not rule out that the restrictions introduced are a tactical move to attract attention - at first, Microsoft tries to introduce unreasonable changes, and after the appearance of indignation, it agrees, cancels the decision, thus expressing its commitment to the ideas of open source software. A similar tactic was used to create the App Store catalog, which initially prohibited the publication of programs under copyleft licenses, but after a wave of indignation, Microsoft defiantly went towards the community and allowed the placement of open source software. A similar situation was with the removal and subsequent return of the Hot Reload functionality in the open source .NET codebase.
Source: opennet.ru