Re: GPL licenced Java application using non GPL jars (libraries)

[Ben]

The jars have open source licences and allow for distribution under 
those licences.

The software will be being distributed as a web archive (a Java war 
file, a kind of zip file with meta data for direct deployment in a Java 
 servlet container). As such the jars will need to be included for the 
web app's auto deployment. There is no real version dependency as the 
jars can be swapped out with later versions in both the distribution I'd 
provide and can be overidden by the end user if required on deployment 
(or by manually changing the contents of the war (a zip) file).

Cheers,

Benjamin

Stefaan A Eeckels wrote:
> On Mon, 22 May 2006 21:53:50 +0100
> Ben <na@na.com> wrote:
>
> > So you're saying that the copyright owners of the third party jars
> > the software uses cannot sue me for changing their licencing terms if
> > I distribute the binary version of my software with their jars?
>
> Do the licenses to these jars give you the right to redistribute them?
>
> > (Again this assumes the GPL licence affects all libraries that are
> > linked to my code).
>
> The GPL only affects what has been licensed under the GPL. 
>
> You do not need to distribute your code with the jars. First, having
> a program dependent on a particular version is bad karma. Second, many
> people don't want multiple instances of the same library (especially
> different versions) on their systems. Third, if these libraries are
> freely available from a reputable source, there is no need to add them
> to your distribution. Fourth, it avoids all license issues. 
>
> Just distribute your product under a license that achieves what you
> want.