JasperReports Community Edition in Commercial Environment

[Rudi Engelbrecht]

Hi all

Apologies if this has been answered recently - I had a look at the forums and have not seen a recent clarification around using JasperReports in a Commercial environment.

Background:

I had a session with our team yesterday and confirmed the following information.

We are using Jaspersoft Studion to design the templates for the reports.

http://community.jaspersoft.com/project/jaspersoft-studio

 

And then we are using JasperReports Library to take as input the template and the date to generate the reports as PDF.

 

http://community.jaspersoft.com/project/jasperreports-library/releases

 

The links posted above both refer to the community editions and the license for Jaspersoft Studio is EPL and the license for JasperReports is LGPL.

 

Can you please confirm that we can use this in a commercial environment without costs? Our product is a SaaS offering for our clients.

 

Looking forward to you response.

 

Kind regards

 

Rudi

 

 

 

[marianol]

First things first this is only my personal opinion... I am not an attorney. The comment below does not constitute legal advice. If you desire legal advice, consult a competent, licensed attorney in your area.

Now to your question, as you stated JasperReports Library (JR) is licensed under LGPL to be more precise LGPL v3; and since this is the one you will be embedding into your own software code I will talk about this one only, since JasperSoft Studio will only be used by you internally to create the report templates (JRXML files).

Short an sweet: Yes, you can use JR in a commercial software, provided you follow the LGPLv3. From what you have said it looks like your application falls into section 4 of the LGPL. There is a copy of the license in the JR distribution or you can read it here http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html. 

In a nutshell, you can use the library as is but if you make changes to the Library itslef, you must distribute those changes you made to the LGPL-covered library under the LGPL licnese. There is no need to distribute the source to your own application but you must also make it possible for people to use your app with a different version of the LGPL library than the one you provide (see the reverse engineering clause).

 

Some further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGPL

 

 

[Rudi Engelbrecht]

Hi Marianol

 

Thank you so much for the prompt answer and clarifying this for us.

 

We look forward to using JasperReports!

 

Kind regards

 

Rudi

[marianol]

Thanks Rudi, remember to check the question as answered so others can find it easier.

 

Also I hope to see you around in the community :)

[hozawa]

>Can you please confirm that we can use this in a commercial environment without costs?

One further comment. Whether it is LGPL or just plain GPL, users are allowed to use the software without cost. The difference is whether user is required to make their source code available as well or not. LGPL allows users to use it  without making their source code available if the jar files are unmodified.

[Rudi Engelbrecht]

Hi Hozawa

 

Thank you for the clarification - we are not modifying any source / jars - so it all looks very easy now.

 

Kind regards

 

Rudi

[marianol]

 

> One further comment. Whether it is LGPL or just plain GPL, users are allowed to use the software without cost.

 

Hozawa, your statement even though true, is misleading. As you said you CAN USE it without cost but depending on the license and HOW YOU USE it may have consequences on your commercial endeavor and by using it you are bound to the terms of the license.

 

The case of the OP his intent is to embed the software in his own SaaS offering and sell this offer to their clients. And based on the question he does not want his work to be licensed with an open source license.

 

Is true for LGPL, plain GPL, AGPL or almost all F/OSS licenses that you can USE the software at not cost to you. And with this licenses you have access to the source code and are able to modify it to fit your needs. But, (and big but) is that ALL of these licenses have restrictions and or consequences on HOW YOU USE IT; those restrictions are triggered when you do certain things depending on the license, for example 'convey' the software, or create derivative works ( calling a library form your own code makes your application a a derivative work of the library) or allow somebody to use it over the network

 

For example, if you create a software that constitutes a derived work of a on GPL or AGPL licensed software program and you 'convey' that software, then that combined work must be licensed as a whole to all third parties under the terms of the GPL or AGPL license.

 

Again, I am not an lawyer and the comment above does not constitute legal advice. If you desire legal advice, consult a competent, licensed attorney in your area.

 

License links:

LGPL: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html

GPL http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

AGPL http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html