License review for new itext version

[Jonathan Underwood]

Dear Tom,

Thanks for such a rapid response to my query.

On 13/11/2007, Tom Marble <tom.marble at sun.com> wrote:
> Hints in the iText file suggest that this is based on the JAI
> (Java Advanced Imaging) tools and probably is not from a current
> release.

Indeed -- according to upstream itext developers the files in question
were derived from a 2001 version of JAI.

> By pulling the source of jai-core out of CVS from
>   https://jai-core.dev.java.net/
> I do find a file
>   (NOTE: URL BROKEN to comply to Gmane 80 character line limit, sorry)
>   https://jai-core.dev.java.net/source/browse/jai-core/src/share/classes/
>   com/sun/media/jai/codecimpl/TIFFLZWDecoder.java?view=markup
> Which may bear some historical relationship to
>   http://itext.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/*checkout*/itext/trunk/src/
>   com/lowagie/text/pdf/LZWDecoder.java?content-type=text%2Fplain
> However I would like to call to everyone's attention that the
> "nuke" clause does not exist in the current version.
>

That's useful information, thanks. However, it seems that jai-core
(which contains the file you point to) is dual licensed under the Java
Research License (JRL)  for non-commercial use and under the Java
Distribution License (JDL) for commercial use. As such, I don't
believe this is Free software, and so replacing the files in itext
with the current JAI files isn't an option. I might be wrong though,
and am sure someone will correct me if so.

> In the case of the "nuke" clause our counsel has allowed us to
> drop that language.  If anyone finds other instances of this language
> in current Sun open source code releases please bring them to our
> attention and we will make sure they are corrected.

With that in mind, is there any possibility of Sun relicensing the
files currently in iText so as not to include the nuke clause. For
reference the files are:

com/lowagie/text/pdf/LZWDecoder.java
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFField.java
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFConstants.java
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFLZWDecoder.java
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/PngImage.java
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFDirectory.java
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFFaxDecoder.java
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/BmpImage.java

>
> In this case please be aware that certain of the libraries in
> question may also be under consideration for and/or undergoing
> license changes (i.e. may be relicensed or multiply licensed):
>   http://blogs.sun.com/tmarble/entry/itp_that_cool_java_thing
>

OK, so there is a possibility that jai-core is relicensed in the
future - that is encouraging.

Best wishes,
Jonathan.