Microsoft and Oracle both face contractual policy scrutiny.

More than a dozen businesses joined together to launch an association to promote less onerous software licensing regulations that go after cloud service providers like Microsoft Corp., whose contracting practices have drawn criticism from rivals, clients, and lawmakers.

The legislator develops new rules.

According to the Fair Software Licensing Coalition, software licenses should allow customers to utilize programs and cloud services from several providers and be more adaptable and predictable for them.

Customers and competitors have attacked Microsoft, Oracle, and other software juggernauts for restricting the interoperability of goods and services, often by making it more expensive or impossible to use them with rival products.

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chairman, US Senator Gary Peters, is developing legislation to change how the federal government purchases software, possibly putting pressure on suppliers to make their systems less restrictive.