License

Please take a moment to read our licensing policy to understand what this means to your project. BlackRay consists of several components with differing licenses.The major components are

  • BlackRay Server - GPLv2
  • BlackRay Client API – GPLv2
  • BlackRay Documentation – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
  • JDBC/ODBC Client Libraries – BSD License

If you are uncertain what this implies to your project, please contact us.

BlackRay Server and BlackRay Client API

BlackRay was built with an open licensing policy in mind, and has almost completely been released as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2. By linking with BlackRay (directly or indirectly, statically or dynamically, at compile time or run time), your application is subject to the terms of the GPL, which require that you release the source code of your application if and when you “distribute” it. Distributing an application includes giving it to customers, contractors, parent companies, subsidiaries, or any legal entity other than your own. Also note that the GPL does not permit you to distribute your application if it depends on non-free software (other than common operating system components), meaning that you can only distribute your application if all of its dependencies also have a license that is compatible with the GPL.

Note: If you do not wish to be bound by the terms of the GPL, you can discuss your needs for a commercial license from SoftMethod GmbH.

BlackRay Documentation

Creative Commons License

All BlackRay documentation is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike License.

In this respect we differ from some vendors where the Documentation itself is GPL. Specifically, if you design a work to be compatible with any of the documented interfaces, but do not include any code derived from BlackRay, your works are not bound by the GPL, but rather by the license you choose.

JDBC/ODBC Client Libraries

Note Currently BlackRay does not provide own Drivers, but rather relies on the Drivers from the PostgreSQL project. The PostgreSQL Code is licensed under the BSD License

The BlackRay JDBC/ODBC drivers, as well as anything that simply uses a socket connection to connect to the BlackRay Server Socket (Socket-Clients) is released under the BSD license.

Copyright (c) 2004-2009, SoftMethod GmbH

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written
agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
and this paragraph and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies.


IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY
FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES,
INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND
ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.


THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER
IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO
OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS,
OR MODIFICATIONS.