This document is licensed under the CC-0 public domain dedication. See LICENSE
This document answers common questions to the OpenWindows license.
Yes. Our goal is to promote free and open-source software. We license most of our software under the OpenWindows license. You can, too ;)
It depends. The OWL tries to restrict patents to a level that would be acceptable by free software developers.
The OpenWindows developers could not write a long version because we're only good at writing short paragraphs.
The OpenWindows License, version 2.0, will be published in September 2025, and deployed to FreeNT and OpenWindows software in January 2026.
Yes, but you shouldn't. The OpenWindows License is not meant for media and therefore you should not use it for such types of content. The OWL is meant for software.
You can modify the OpenWindows license in a minor way, or translate it into another language (which we already do in license-translations).
However, we discourage modifying the OpenWindows license, which is why the document includes this notice:
Everyone is permitted to distribute verbatim copies of this docuent, but changing it is not allowed.
We suggest you add additional notes if you want to add exceptions or extra conditions to the OpenWindows License. You can put such notices in a comment in your code.
No. The OWL contains permissions that defy the purpose of proprietary software. This makes the license incompatible with proprietary software.
If you use the OWL on your proprietary software, it will have no effect, and will not do anything to protect your work. It will increase the risk of piracy.