How would the open source and free software world be affected if most or all software were released under the Sybase OpenWattcom Public License (SOWPL)? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This license has the peculiarity that any software implementation requires you to offer the source code, even if you only plan to use it privately. This makes it a stronger license than the AGPL in terms of copyleft. If the AGPL already scares away almost all companies, the SOWPL scares away almost everyone.

My question is, what would happen if free and/or open source software had the SOWPL? Would projects have to be forked? Would free and open source software die? Would we have to start from scratch again or hire lawyers to avoid problems?

I would like to know your response to this fictional scenario.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Or maintain a repos. Which would force people to create an account on one of the free VCS servers, pay for an account on a non-free one, or run their own.

this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025

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