Microsoft Store Bans Paid Apps With Third-Party Open Source Software

From now on, Microsoft will ban applications in the Store that use open source software and charge money for it. When software is generally available for free elsewhere, developers should not charge for it unless it is their own open source software.

Developers may, based on the updated terms of use so stop charging the Microsoft Store for applications that use third-party open source software notes Deskmodder† Also ‘making apps unreasonably expensive relative to the functions and capabilities of the product’ is prohibited under the same heading. Microsoft further refers to guidelines of the United States Federal Trade Commission regarding pricing for a product.

The new rules curb a practice whereby developers can earn money with little effort from software that is basically free. Of course, creators of open source software themselves can charge money for an application that uses that software, although in that case too unreasonably expensive prices are not allowed. In practice, it is not yet clear to what extent Microsoft can enforce the new guidelines, unless it is an obvious clone of an application.

This happened recently, for example, with the sound editing program Audacity. The developer of that open source program was forced to release a Microsoft Store version of the app because paid clones were offered in the virtual store. Aside from allowing others to monetize otherwise free software, many clones wouldn’t work well.

With the updated terms of use, scenes like Audacity and clones based on it should no longer occur in the Microsoft Store