[License-discuss] GPLv2+ce question - are you forced to make your project open source.

[Thorsten Glaser]

richard dagenais dixit:

>Someone has mentioned that in order to be able to use the open source
>software you must make your software open source as well. Our software

This is not generally true, but details are very intricate.

>Is it possible to simply include the open source Java runtime in our
>packaging, which is a commercial product? For our situation, we are not
>modifying any part of the open source code but using it to generate
>byte code from our code base. We also would need to distribute the Java
>JRE of the open source project with our code in order to run the
>application.

In this specific case, it’s okay, and your software can be under any
licence terms you wish. However, because you distribute the JDK/JRE,
you will also need to follow GPLv2 §3. The easiest way to do that for
you, most reliable also, is §3(a) — simply also include the sources
for the JDK/JRE, which you have received at the same place where you
could download it. Those JDK/JRE sources, then, are under GPLv2+CE,
but “mere aggregation” with your software is not restricted.

IANAL, TINLA, but this should be pretty accurate.

bye,
//mirabilos
-- 
Sometimes they [people] care too much: pretty printers [and syntax highligh-
ting, d.A.] mechanically produce pretty output that accentuates irrelevant
detail in the program, which is as sensible as putting all the prepositions
in English text in bold font.	-- Rob Pike in "Notes on Programming in C"