Do I need to open my source code if I use OpenJDK as JVM?
With the current developments regarding Oracle announcing its intention to charge for a pro (or whatever you call it) version of JVM, and IBM announcing its intention to support OpenJDK, things are getting quite complicated for a large set of Java developers. We have a large piece of work in Java, and we did not have any issues in choosing our licensing terms up until now. It appears that we'll have to switch to OpenJDK where IBM will be putting their support. But OpenJDK is GPL V2, and as far as I know, any code linking to GPL V2 must be GPL V2. We also have some JNI code, which is going to get even larger. Given these facts, does it mean that if we use OpenJDK to run our software, we'll have to switch to GPL for our licensing? Needless to say, this would blow away our whole licensing & business model setup.
Answer
The license for OpenJDK is not "GPL v2", it's "GPL v2 with the Classpath Exception". Quote:
As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that module. An independent module is a module which is not derived from or based on this library.