GPL?

[mosabua]

Hi!

 

I have been using JasperReports in our reporting solutions for a few years now. With a new commercial project I would like to make the move to JasperIntelligence. However I just discovered that it is GPL licensed. I am not sure about the intend of this and the consequences for me.

 

As far as I understand that does not allow me to use JasperIntelligence within my application. I can only use it as is in the form of a service. Is that correct?

 

If so, why does the manual talk about modifications to the config and the UI. Every user would have to give those changes back. Thats fine in terms of the config for a different database and so on but in terms of UI changes it wont fly so well here.

 

So if I basically bundle the JI war and ship as part of my preconfigured setup that includes the app server, my app and the JI I violate the license right?

 

So what can I do .. apart from forgetting about it and using JasperReports in its RAW form? (which is kind of like writing my own JI .. which I partly got ..)

 

The same problems apply to iReport btw. What are JasperSofts intentions? Relicence with LGPL or Apache licence. Offer a dual licence for commercial embedding?

 

There is nothing on the jasperforge site I could find even though this is crucial.

 

Any pointers would be great.

 

Thanks

 

manfred

[swood]

Somehow, the description of the JasperIntelligence license did not get put on the project web site. Here it is: http://jasperforge.org/sf/wiki/do/viewPage/projects.jasperintelligence/wiki/License

 

 

In short, if you want to distribute JasperIntelligence as part of your own application, or you use JasperIntelligence as part of a public web site, you either have to open source your code, or get a commercial license from JasperSoft.

 

iReport is GPL licensed in the same way as JasperIntelligence.

 

 

Sherman

JasperSoft

[Grazy Mos]

if you want to distribute JasperIntelligence as part of your own application

 

If you plan on distributing (i.e. people accessing the application are not part of your organization) a software application containing JasperIntelligence...

 

Does this means I need a commerial license if I want to deploy jasperIntelligence.war and config it how I want, and use a link in my own application to go to the report service? Or is it possible to do this under the gpl license without giving my application source free?

 

We are planning to use jasperIntelligence and distribute it to our clients but without modifing the source code or using parts of the source code.

[swood]

If you are using JI in the way you describe, without any change or extension to the code, then you can do that for free. If you are embedding JI into a broader web site or portal, then the web site becomes GPL.

 

See http://www.jaspersoft.com/pr_overview.html

for more details.

 

 

 

Sherman

JasperSoft

[mosabua]

Sherman,

 

I am a bit confused by your statement. What is the difference between using a link that goes to ji or calling ji url from an application and embedding it into a portal.

 

How is using the url not embedding?

 

I am more than happy to provide our changes and improvements to JI back to the forge, but we certainly can not afford for our application to go GPL.

 

And what if I get a commercial licence. What are the terms and costs. How does the price change? What if JasperSoft goes down. Are we hosed then? These are risk that I have to weigh .. LGPL would avoid that and a support contract might still be handy..

 

manfred

[swood]

It gets down to how you are packaging JI. If you embed JI in a portal or in a larger web app, the GPL applies. If you run JI standalone and refer to it via URL to get to reports, you are not relying on JI to allow your application to run.

 

See http://www.jaspersoft.com/ss_subscriptionservices-details.html

for support plans JasperSoft provides on an annual subscription basis.

 

In terms of JasperSoft not being around, I would say you have the ultimate protection: the source itself!

 

 

Sherman

JasperSoft

[mosabua]

Okay - maybe I understand better if I explain a potential plant. Is a ji war running in the same app server considered standalone. Our app would only either call a ji webservice for a report, call a ji url for a report or direct into the ji user interface with the report available there. Which of these options would allow GPL usage? Which would not?

 

Oh and in terms of JasperSoft not being around or changing prices too much to able to afford it ... the source would not help if we use a commercial license because it would be only usable in a GPL way. So from a business sense using the GPL version is safer from the start as far as I can tell.

 

Of course I might be totally wrong here. And I do hope that JasperSoft is around for a long time and keep growing and prospering. I look forward to contribute our ji configurations if we find a way to use it.

[Grazy Mos]

I tried custimizing the layout of jasperIntelligence, i was able to remove the banners, change the titel, and change the colors by editing the .JSP files.

 

 

Is this viewed as editing the "Source" code?

 

 

If so.. are you allowed to change it with a commercial license?

 

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Niels

[mosabua]

Yes.. thats all considered source code. As far as I understand you can edit it just fine and use it as well. But as soon as you want to distribute it your changes need to be made publicly available. And if you embed it into another application that other application has to be GPL licensed... just my 2c.

[swood]

You are distributing your changes in your WAR with the JSP and config files, so that meets the GPL requirements. If you have other code that uses JI APIs etc, then that would need to be distributed too.

 

Or you can get a commercial license from JasperSoft to allow distribution without the GPL requirements.

 

 

 

Sherman

JasperSoft

[cmaniac]

well i was reading this post and I have the same doubt:

and i have a short question:

 

Can I:

1- Can I modify JI (view, bussiness,logic layers) so it

suits an a company? without pay for it o make my app

GPL?

2- Can I distribute JI with changes in the clients

without pay for it?

 

Why in http://www.jaspersoft.com/pr_overview.html

say that I must pay.... and in http://jasperforge.org/sf/wiki/do/viewPage/projects.jasperserver/wiki/License

say that I can without pay ??????

 

so??

[mdahlman]

You can customize JasperServer Open Source to meet your needs. There is no requirement to pay, but it is licensed under the GPL license. Therefore if you distribute JasperServer (with or without changes) then you must follow the terms of the GPL license and make your entire application available under GPL. Likewise, if you use the application only internally, then you are not distributing it; so GPL distribution considerations are not relevant.

 

If you want to distribute (i.e. people accessing the application are not part of your organization) and you don't want to release your application as a GPL product, then you can get a commercial license from JasperSoft. This will free you from GPL considerations.

 

-Matt

JasperSoft

[santhoshch]

 I was going through this thread today morning and I have a question which I felt is not answered yet.

1. We have JasperServer running on one of our servers and our application uses a URL to request a report  and embeds into it.

2.We made some customizations as well to the report UI such as look and feel for better integration.

3. We do NOT distribute the application as a deployment to the customers but we only host the service which public can use.

My question is, can we use the JasperServer community edition for our production deployment as per the GPL? 

[mdahlman]

If you distribute the application, then you need to comply with the GPL by distributing the source as well.

JasperServer 3.5 and earlier were released under GPL. Many folks felt that the terms of the GPL did not consider a hosted application, like you describe, to be distribution.

JasperServer 3.7 and later are distributed under the AGPL license. This license definitely considers that a hosted application is being distributed. Therefore you need to comply with the AGPL license and make the source to your complete solution (JasperServer plus other pieces) available.

If you prefer not to make all of your source available, you could get a commercial license from Jaspersoft which does not have such requirements (sales@jaspersoft.com).

I'm confident in these analyses. They are the standard understanding of the GPL type licenses. But as always it's better to get legal advice from a lawyer rather than from some guy on the internet.

Regards,
Matt