Need Advice to see if we can ship OpenJDK/JRE with Commercial App

[Geir Magnusson Jr.]

I think I read too quickly and I think you're right as long as the bundling is a distribution convenience rather than some kind of "combined" work (modified or unmodified...)

geir


On Oct 7, 2011, at 8:00 AM, Ben Evans wrote:

> Hi Geir,
> 
> Well, we don't know what Dan's precise use case is (and yes the details do matter here) but I have many examples of software delivery media which contained both unmodified GPL binaries and proprietary software binaries.
> 
> Are you claiming that this delivery mode is essentially infringing? I'd like to hear your reasoning for claiming that - I don't think I've heard that reading before.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ben
> 
> 
> On Oct 7, 2011 11:41 AM, "Geir Magnusson Jr." <geir at pobox.com> wrote:
> have you read the GPL recently?
> 
> geir
> 
> On Oct 7, 2011, at 3:50 AM, Ben Evans wrote:
> 
> > First of all, IANAL.
> >
> > Having said that, if you aren't modifying the OpenJDK then all you are
> > doing is bundling a piece of unmodified GPL software into the same
> > delivery mechanism as your proprietary application. Which should be
> > fine - just include the GPL, a README which explains where to get the
> > source for OpenJDK from, and don't claim that OpenJDK is your work, or
> > anything to do with you.
> >
> > So you *can* do this. The question really is - *should* you do this.
> > And there are very good reasons for not bundling a platform along with
> > an application. I'm sure other people will chime in with other very
> > good reasons why not to do this, but:
> >
> > Field Support Overhead. This is a huge one. You can't possibly test
> > your app+JRE bundle on every conceivable machine configuration that
> > your customers will have. Yet, by shipping a combined app+JRE, you
> > have made your company responsible for support of that combined bundle
> > in the eyes of your customers. The costs of servicing support requests
> > from your customers will increase enormously if you are shipping a
> > private JRE along with the app. If Windows is one of the platforms you
> > need to support, then this problem becomes an absolute nightmare,
> > especially if your customers are remote (and even worse if your
> > customers are essentially corporate desktop users).
> >
> > If you're absolutely set on going this route, take a look at the
> > profit model for your app, and the support cost model. Work out how
> > many additional support cases it would take before your profit margin
> > is eaten up. If that number isn't very, very large, then don't do
> > this.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Ben
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 8:34 AM, Dan Tran <dantran at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Sorry about the confusion I've made.
> >>
> >> Basically, I would like to ship OpenJDK's JRE with my App, instead of
> >> Oracle's JRE which requires a license/support fee.
> >>
> >> Shipping OpenJDK with our app is purely for the convenient to our
> >> customer.  There is no reason for us to modify OpenJDK
> >>
> >> However, according to OpenJDK license which is GPLv2 with "Classpath"
> >> Exception.  So my guess is we can ship OpenJDK with our app without
> >> the obligation of open up our source code.
> >>
> >> However, to be very sure, I  would like to ping this forum to see if
> >> I miss any thing, and also to find out if any one are on the same
> >> route
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >>
> >> -Dan
> >>
> >> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 11:26 PM, Ben Evans
> >> <benjamin.john.evans at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> Hi Dan,
> >>>
> >>> Your mails are quite hard to understand (and I'm guessing English
> >>> isn't your first language).
> >>>
> >>> Could you try explaining again exactly what you want to do and why you
> >>> want to bundle a JRE or JDK with your app?
> >>>
> >>> Are you making modifications to OpenJDK? Or is your application just a
> >>> Java-based app and you want to ship a JRE for convenience?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>>
> >>> Ben
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 7:11 AM, Dan Tran <dantran at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> ie, little interests on commercial company willing to ship openjdk
> >>>> with their app and but ship with Oracle JRE and pay for license fee.
> >>>>
> >>>> -D
> >>>>
> >>>> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 10:58 PM, Henri Gomez <henri.gomez at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>> Since I found so little discussion about ability to ship OpenJDK with
> >>>>>> a commercial app ( instead of Oracle JRE, and not paying for license
> >>>>>> fee ), it sounds like OpenJDK 7 is NOT ready for prime time yet?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> What do you means by 'not ready for prime time yet' ?
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>
>