San Francisco (IDGNS) - The board of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has approved two Microsoft licenses that allow proprietary source code to be shared, a move that is likely to inspire protest and spur controversy for die-hard open source proponents. ADVERTISEMENT The Microsoft Public License (MPL) and the Microsoft Reciprocal License (MRL), two of Microsoft's "shared source" licenses, are now viable OSI licenses for distributing open source code alongside more widely used community licenses such as the GNU General Public License and the Mozilla Public License. "Today's approval by the OSI concludes a tremendous learning experience for Microsoft, and I look forward to our continued participation in the open source community," said Microsoft general manager of Windows Server Marketing and Platform Strategy Bill Hilf in a press statement.