re-packaging iText - legal - Fedora mailing-lists

30 Sep 2008


      Hi, I wanted to bring into attention the recent development in the licensing of the iText. This software was included in Fedora in the past but then removed due to licensing trouble:
(i) https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=176981
and especially
(ii) https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=236309
According to the second link it was removed from F-7 because of the fact that it contained some Sun-licensed files.
I downloaded the software from its current website:
http://www.lowagie.com/iText/download.html
The website claims a dual MPLv1.1 / LGPL license. Inside the package there is a text file (core/com/lowagie/text/misc_licenses.txt), which I will paste to the bottom of this email.
The most relevant parts of this txt file are in section (3). The original license ended with the sentence: "You acknowledge that Software is not designed, licensed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility." The word "licensed" caused the trouble in the past (see comment#2 in (ii)) as it made the software non-free. But according to the txt file there has been some email traffic between the original developer and iText developer on January 23, 2008 and the word "licensed" has been removed from that sentence in the final license.
I think we can re-consider packaging this software. I want to make sure we are on solid grounds.
Please post your opinions.
Orcan
-----misc_licenses.txt-----
(1)
ExceptionConverter:
The original version of this class was published in an article by Heinz Kabutz.
Read http://www.javaspecialists.co.za/archive/newsletter.do?issue=033&print=y...
"This material from The Java(tm) Specialists' Newsletter by Maximum Solutions (South Africa). Please contact Maximum Solutions  for more information.
(2)
SimpleXMLParser:
The original version of this class was published in a JavaWorld article by Steven Brandt:
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/javatips/jw-javatip128.html
Jennifer Orr (JavaWorld) wrote: "You have permission to use the code appearing in Steven Brandt's JavaWorld article, 'Java Tip 128: Create a quick-and-dirty XML parser.'
We ask that you reference the author as the creator and JavaWorld as the original publisher of the code." Steven Brandt also agreed with the use of this class.
(3)
The following files contain material that was copyrighted by SUN:
com/lowagie/text/pdf/LZWDecoder.java (first appearance in iText: 2002-02-08)
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/BmpImage.java (first appearance in iText: 2003-06-20)
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/PngImage.java (first appearance in iText: 2003-04-25)
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFDirectory.java (first appearance in iText: 2003-04-09)
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFFaxDecoder.java (first appearance in iText: 2003-04-09)
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFField.java (first appearance in iText: 2003-04-09)
com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFLZWDecoder.java (first appearance in iText: 2003-04-09)
The original code was released under the BSD license, and contained the following extra restriction: "You acknowledge that Software is not designed, licensed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility."
In a mail sent to Bruno Lowagie on January 23, 2008, Brian Burkhalter (@sun.com) writes: "This code is under a BSD license and supersedes the older codec packages on which your code is based. It also includes numerous fixes among them being the ability to handle a lot of 'broken' TIFFs."
Note that numerous fixes were applied to the code used in iText by Paulo Soares, but apart from the fixes there were no essential changes between the code that was originally adapted and the code that is now available under the following license:
Copyright (c) 2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All  Rights Reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
- Redistribution of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this  list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistribution in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
   the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
   distribution.
Neither the name of Sun Microsystems, Inc. or the names of
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
from this software without specific prior written permission.
This software is provided "AS IS," without a warranty of any
kind. ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY
EXCLUDED. SUN MIDROSYSTEMS, INC. ("SUN") AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL
NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY LICENSEE AS A RESULT OF
USING, MODIFYING OR DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS
DERIVATIVES. IN NO EVENT WILL SUN OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY LOST REVENUE, PROFIT OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, HOWEVER CAUSED AND
REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR
INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF SUN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
You acknowledge that this software is not designed or intended for
use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any
nuclear facility.
The main difference can be found in the final paragraph: the restriction
that the source code is not "licensed" in this particular situation has
been removed.
FYI: Brian also added: "A bit of history might be in order.
The codec classes that you used originally were based on some
classes included with JAI but not strictly part of JAI.
As of Java SE 1.4 an official Image I/O framework was
added in javax.imageio.... This frameork supports these formats:
Java 1.4: GIF (read only), JPEG, PNG
Java 1.5: Added support for BMP and WBMP
Java 1.6: Added support for writing GIF
The JAI Image I/O Tools packages (jai-imageio-core) were created
to support formats handled by JAI but not included in Java SE
as well as some new things like JPEG2000."
(4) the file com/lowagie/text/pdf/codec/TIFFConstants
and some other TIFF related code is derived from LIBTIFF:
Copyright (c) 1988-1997 Sam Leffler
Copyright (c) 1991-1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and
its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
that (i) the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in
all copies of the software and related documentation, and (ii) the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or
publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written
permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY
WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND,
OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS,
WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE
OF THIS SOFTWARE.
(5)
BidiOrder:
As stated in the Javadoc comments, materials from Unicode.org are used in the class com/lowagie/text/pdf/BidiOrder.java
The following license applies to these materials:
http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html#Exhibit1
EXHIBIT 1
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Unicode Data Files include all data files under the directories
http://www.unicode.org/Public/, http://www.unicode.org/reports/,
and http://www.unicode.org/cldr/data/ . Unicode Software includes any source code published in the Unicode Standard or under the directories http://www.unicode.org/Public/, http://www.unicode.org/reports/, and http://www.unicode.org/cldr/data/.
NOTICE TO USER: Carefully read the following legal agreement. BY DOWNLOADING, INSTALLING, COPYING OR OTHERWISE USING UNICODE INC.'S DATA FILES ("DATA FILES"), AND/OR SOFTWARE ("SOFTWARE"), YOU UNEQUIVOCALLY ACCEPT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY, ALL OF THE TERMS AND CNDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO NOT DOWNLOAD, INSTALL, COP, DISTRIBUTE OR USE THE DATA FILES OR SOFTWARE.
ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO NOT DOWNLOAD, INSTALL, COPY, DISTRIBUTE OR USE THE DATA FILES OR SOFTWARE.
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Copyright (C) 1991-2007 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed under the Terms of Use in http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html.
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