What license has jai_imageio ? (jai imageio)

Question

Somebody is cleaning up SO and deleting posts (here and here). Instead is should have been moved here but I can't comment / edit / move it, so here is the question:

I know that sun/oracle stopped working on its jai_imageio libs a long time ago. Now if someone would still be using it - what license does it have? I checked it and it doesn't seem to be a standard one like apache/BSD or the like. Can anyone shed some light on it? Is it compatible with other standard licenses like Apache, BSD or LGPL? Is it deferred/similar to other known licenses?

Here you'll find the full text:

Permitted Uses:

1. You may reproduce and use the Software for Your own Individual, Commercial and Research and Instructional Use only for the purposes of designing, developing, testing, and running Your applets and applications ("Programs").

2. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and restrictions and exceptions set forth in the Software's documentation, You may reproduce and distribute portions of Software identified as a redistributable in the documentation (each a "Redistributable"), provided that You comply with the following (note that You may be entitled to reproduce and distribute other portions of the Software not defined in the documentation as a Redistributable under certain other licenses as described in the THIRDPARTYLICENSEREADME, if applicable):

(a) You distribute Redistributable complete and unmodified and only bundled as part of Your Programs,

(b) Your Programs add significant and primary functionality to the Redistributable,

(c) You distribute Redistributable for the sole purpose of running Your Programs,

(d) You do not distribute additional software intended to replace any component(s) of the Redistributable,

(e) You do not remove or alter any proprietary legends or notices contained in or on the Redistributable.

(f) You only distribute the Redistributable subject to a license agreement that protects Sun's interests consistent with the terms contained in this Agreement, and

(g) You agree to defend and indemnify Sun and its licensors from and against any damages, costs, liabilities, settlement amounts and/or expenses (including attorneys' fees) incurred in connection with any claim, lawsuit or action by any third party that arises or results from the use or distribution of any and all Programs and/or Redistributable.

3. Java Technology Restrictions. You may not create, modify, or change the behavior of, or authorize Your licensees to create, modify, or change the behavior of, classes, interfaces, or subpackages that are in any way identified as "java", "javax", "sun" or similar convention as specified by Sun in any naming convention designation...

Is it compatible with other standard licenses like Apache, BSD or LGPL? Is it deferred/similar to other known licenses?

Answer 1

Attributions to haraldK

I am not a lawyer, and all the usual disclaimers. ;-)

The link you have found, is the license for the JAI ImageIO product shipped by Sun/Oracle. Its license is that text you have found. It's not an open source license, and seems quite restrictive.

According to what I believe is the latest version of the source code at java.net, the license of the source code is BSD. Unfortunately, if you look at the project source control, you'll find that there are multiple licenses, covering different parts of the project, like native parts vs Java source code. I also believe that the JJ2000 (JPEG 2000 implementation) has its own license, that I have never been able to understand.

You will also find various forks around the web, fixing some issues. They mostly claim to be BSD-licensed.

Because JAI ImageIO is neither maintained, nor has an understandable license, I have created TwelveMonkeys ImageIO. This is an open source project, completely under BSD license, and actively maintained. It uses the same API as JAI ImageIO, and handles most formats supported by JAI ImageIO (and some more on its own).