The Eclipse Public License (EPL) is an open source software license used by the Eclipse Foundation for its software. It replaces the Common Public License (CPL) and removes certain terms relating to litigations related to patents.[6]
The Eclipse Public License is designed to be a business-friendly free software license and features weaker copyleft provisions than licenses such as the GNU General Public License (GPL).[7] The receiver of EPL-licensed programs can use, modify, copy and distribute the work and modified versions, in some cases being obligated to release their own changes.[8]
The EPL is approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI)[3] and is listed as a free software license by the Free Software Foundation (FSF).[2]