Sybase Open Watcom Public License

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.

Sybase Open Watcom Public License

SPDX identifier	Watcom-1.0
Debian FSG compatible	No
FSF approved	No[1]
OSI approved	Yes[2]
GPL compatible	No
Copyleft	Very strong

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]

History

Version 1.0 appears to have been written in 2002. It's publicly released no later than January 8, 2003, the date of the initial release of Open Watcom C/C++.

The draft of version 2.0 of the License was published on 20 January 2004. This version incorporated changes from Apple and made the licence less specific to OpenWatcom.^[6][7]