SPDX identifier | Watcom-1.0 |
---|---|
Debian FSG compatible | No |
FSF approved | No[1] |
OSI approved | Yes[2] |
GPL compatible | No |
Copyleft | Very strong |
The Sybase Open Watcom Public License is a software license that has been approved by the Open Source Initiative.[2] It is the licence under which the Open Watcom C/C++ compiler is released.
The license has not been accepted as "free" under the Debian Free Software Guidelines, due to the license's termination clauses.[3][4]
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has stated that the license is not "free" as it requires the source to be published when you "deploy" the software for private use only.[1] In contrast, FSF's General Public License (GPL) does not require that a modified source code has to be made public when the software modification was only used privately without a public release of the software. This makes the Watcom license also GPL incompatible and a stronger copyleft license than the GPL and even the AGPL.
The Fedora project also considers the license as non-free, citing the FSF argumentation.[5]
This is not a free software license. It requires you to publish the source code publicly whenever you "Deploy" the covered software, and "Deploy" is defined to include many kinds of private use.