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Is the iTextSharp DLL free to use and redistribute with my web application project which i will be selling?

Shyju
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about licensing or legal issues, not programming or software development. [See here](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/274963/questions-about-licensing/274964#274964) and [here](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/139804/can-licensing-questions-ever-be-on-topic) for details, and the [help] for more. – JasonMArcher Jun 13 '15 at 00:26

3 Answers3

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Version 5.0.0 and up is licensed under the AGPL (strong copyleft).
Version 4.1.6 and previous are still licensed under the MPL/LGPL (weak copyleft).

So for a commercial product you'll almost certainly want to stick with 4.1.6 or previous.

Here's an archived unofficial citation.

Christopher Galpin
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Yes, as long as you don't try to sell it to your customer as your own product (;-)), you're free to use and deploy it as part of your own app.

Update 02/06/2011:
iText appears to now have a strong copyleft license (AGPL). This means that you cannot use it as part of a commercial product...

Thomas Weller
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    @Thomas- Are you sure that this answer is still current and correct? – Tim Post Feb 05 '11 at 14:25
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    Thanks for updating! Answers on SO tend to get dated from time to time, we try to keep it accurate :) – Tim Post Feb 06 '11 at 19:24
  • What if you're not selling it at all, just as use for an in-house application for other employees to use? – Keith May 27 '16 at 13:39
  • In this case it's commercial software nevertheless, because the company is still using it for making profit. – Thomas Weller May 28 '16 at 16:12
  • While I'm long after the initial conversation, I think it is worth noting that in the case @Keith mentioned, it would be fine to use, as long as you don't release to the public. You only have to provide the source if you distribute to the public. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.en.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic (This addresses GPL2 specifically, but I believe it follows for GPLv3 and AGPLv3 as well ~ IANAL) – TwainJ Jan 19 '19 at 00:51
  • Doesn't **not being allowed to use iTextSharp** for **commercial use** kind of **defeat the purpose of using it?** – Momoro Feb 10 '20 at 01:07
  • @Momoro That is a misconception about AGPL which states that if you use it for commercial purposes you must make available the source to those who you distribute it to. If you create an in-house application that is used for commercial purposes you still need to make the source available to the users, which is the company itself. I've had many vendors argue against this point, the license is what it is. – JakeSays Aug 30 '20 at 10:30
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Yes, as long as you are just dynamically linking it under the LGPL.

Edit: See accepted answer, iText now uses a strong copyleft licence which requires you to release your source code if you use it.

Rob Stevenson-Leggett
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Daniel A. White
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