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I want to use a MS-PL licensed library in a proprietary software, but it'll run inside my company, with no external distribution.

Does the license allows this kind of usage or it constitutes a violation of the license?

Doug
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1 Answers1

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From MS-PL:

  1. Definitions

The terms "reproduce," "reproduction," "derivative works," and "distribution" have the same meaning here as under U.S. copyright law.

This then directly goes to the copyright law. From bitlaw:

The distribution right grants to the copyright holder the exclusive right to make a work available to the public by sale, rental, lease, or lending.

Or the more wordy text Title 17 USC ยง 106 (3)

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

...

(3) to distribute copies or phono records of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

Again, note the 'to the public' in there.

As described in the original poster's question:

but it'll run inside my company, with no external distribution.

This is not to the public and does not constitute distribution of the work.

That said, I am not a lawyer, and thus if you have specific issue with this you had best contact your company lawyer to get an authoritative answer.