About JasperReports Licenses

[2001 JI Open Discussion]

By: Teodor Danciu - teodord

About JasperReports Licenses

2005-01-11 08:00

 

Hi, All,

 

I want to start here a new message thread dedicated

to JasperReports library licensing.

 

The purpose of the discussion is to have some

feedback from the community on the initiative

concerning the simplification of the way the

JasperReports library is licensed.

 

Right now the software is available under two

different licenses and this is rather confusing.

I'm planning to keep only a single license for the

product in the future and I would like to have some

feedback on this from you.

 

The discussion already started on this thread here,

where we already mentioned the MIT license:

 

https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1206736&forum_id=113529

 

Thank you,

Teodor

 

 

 

By: Vinod Kumar Singh - vinodsingh

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-01-12 05:13

I would prefer a license which is human readable instead of lawyer readable. Due to simplicity the Apache License was used to be my favourite, but now it also has become complex like LGPL, which I never understood properly.

 

IMHO whatever license you choose must be simple and short.

 

Thanks,

 

Vinod

 

 

By: ben - bension

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-01-12 18:57

We have started using JasperReports recently in our application. Works a treat. I like the idea of the MIT license. Simple, to the point and one of the least restrictive open source licenses.

 

In laymans terms here's a definition of the MIT license I found on the net:

 

Do whatever you want with this. You can even branch proprietary software, you are not forced to contribute back neither to me nor to the community. Just keep my name in the source code.

 

It seems like it is one of the least restrictive open source licenses. The best part is that it doesn't force copyleft.

 

Ben

 

ps keep up the very good work. Look forward to future releases

 

 

By: BJ Freeman - bjfreeman

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-01-12 19:03

As an author, what do you want out of this project. what do you see would benifit you and the rest.

I think it is great you opened this up, however I also understand that each of us the author software have our own agenda's

 

 

By: Teodor Danciu - teodord

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-01-28 10:40

 

Hi,

 

I think that until I find a better license for

JasperReports the next couple of versions will be

delivered only under the LGPL license.

 

The LGPL license is still very popular even it is not

perfect. It was my first choice (after getting rid of

the initial GPL JasperReports started with).

 

The Apache-style license will not be available

probably starting with the next version of JasperReports.

Even the Apache projects moved to a 2.0 version

because the first version was probably too relaxed

even for them.

 

Feedback on this is welcomed!

 

Thank you,

Teodor

 

 

 

By: Martin Bosak - bosakm

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-03-02 08:30

Teodor,

 

I just started looking at JasperReports and it looks pretty awesome.

 

As to the license, I also would suggest using the latest Apache license.

 

The legal department for the company I work for is kind of anal and have generally not allowed the use of anything licensed under the GPL or the LGPL. Concerning the LGPL, the admit that it is probably OK; but they don't want to be the first test case.

 

However, they generally rubber-stamp anything with the Apache license. Thus, I suggest it.

 

I'm going to have to renew my battle with them in order to use JasperReports (which I would like to).

 

Thanks for a great tool and reading this.

 

Marty Bosak

 

 

 

By: Craig O'Shannessy - shanness

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-03-02 16:37

The Apache licence is very "free", but I think your companies legal dept. is the problem. If they are stopping you using GPL and LGPL software, they are HEAVILY restricting you from using open source. The GPL is the licence for the VAST majority of open source software. I assume you don't use Linux?

 

My understanding of the GPL is that it would be unsuitable for a "Library" such as Jasper, and that that is the point of the LGPL, it allows embedding without the "viral" nature of the GPL.

 

P.S. I don't mean to start a flame war here, I'm not trying to point out how valid, or good licences are or not, just saying that the GPL has massive support from the developer community.

 

 

By: Rawad Aoun - rawad_aoun

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-12-16 06:25

Teodor,

 

First of all let me just congratulate you for the great work you did in JasperReports.

I compared it with many other Reporting tools and found it to be the best by far. JFreeReport is closing in but still needs some work.

 

Second, I have an issue concerning the LGPL/GPL licneses. I want to use JasperReports in my application which is NOT free, and I have no problems with this since JasperReoports is LGPL'd. But to make an efficient use of JasperReports I want to embed in my application also a visual report designer for JasperReports (like iReports, JapserAssistant...), but all these visual report designers for JasperReports are currently GPL'd which forbids me from embeding them in my application.

 

So the question is: Is there any plans to make a LGPL'd visual report designer for JasperReports ? Is there anyone available now and am not aware of its existence ?

 

Cheers,

 

Rawad

 

 

By: Frans Thamura - fthamura

RE: About JasperReports Licenses

2005-12-17 07:20

i support all of you, make anything to best of both. you the developer and we are the user and ofcouse the person that want to make it propietary.