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Are iText Java libraries to generate PDF documents free or do we have to pay for it?

Kurt Pfeifle
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Deven Shah
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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 center](http://stackoverflow.com/help) for more. – durron597 Jun 15 '15 at 01:02

1 Answers1

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I am the original developer of iText and the CEO of the iText Group. I'm also a Mentor at the Founder Institute. Please take a look at my slides for the session about Startup Legal and IP for the Founder Institute: http://www.slideshare.net/blowagie/startup-legal-and-ip

iText is software and therefor copyright law applies:

Copyright law allows an author to prohibit others from reproducing, adapting, or distributing copies of the author's work.

According to the copyright law, you do not have the right to use software that you didn't write yourself.

However, iText is distributed using a copyleft license:

Copyleft gives every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute the work as long as any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same copyleft licensing scheme.

This means that anyone can use iText for free as long as the conditions for its use are met.

To know more about the conditions, you need to take a look at the license. In this case: the AGPL. This means that:

  • You can not distribute a closed source application that is based on iText without distributing the full source code of your own application.
  • You can not use iText in a web application without making the full source code of your web application available through that web application.

This is why people often refer to the AGPL as a viral license: all the software that touches an AGPL library such as iText needs to be free too.

Obviously, there are plenty of companies who do not want to ship their source code. That's why iText Software also provides iText under another license. This license is a commercial license. You have to pay for it.

To answer your question: iText can be used for free in situations where you also distribute your software for free. As soon as you want to use iText in a closed source, proprietary environment, you have to pay for your use of iText.

Please read the Legal section in the book "The Best iText Questions on StackOverflow":

There's also a FAQ on the iText web site that will give you more info. If you want the advice of a lawyer, you can always watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCwhEWEPV-E (15 minutes).

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Bruno Lowagie
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    what about the 4.2.1 version? Is that able to be used in commercial applications without the mentioned restrictions? – raspacorp Sep 29 '16 at 18:56
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    iText 4.2.1 is not an official version. It was made by a third party (a company that no longer exists) and that party used our Maven groupId. This is not allowed. See http://itextpdf.com/maven-update-problem-with-itext-4.2.2 We also successfully won a lawsuit against an abuser. See slide 32-37 of https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/blowagie/how-can-large-open-source-projects-be-monetized – Bruno Lowagie Sep 29 '16 at 21:37
  • Thx for the comment Bruno, I read those documents however I still don't get some details, if you won the lawsuit why is the maven artifact still available in central? I know that central doesn't allow changes in published components, but this is legal stuff. Does this mean that 4.2.x is a loophole in terms of the licensing of this product or does it mean that for legally using the 4.2.x versions for commercial apps users must do the same exercise you did from 2007-2009? mentioned in Itext site: http://developers.itextpdf.com/question/versions-older-than-5 – raspacorp Sep 29 '16 at 22:48
  • What is the purpose of all these questions? Please hire a lawyer if you are in doubt. As for Maven: reclaiming the groupId by rerouting to iText 5 was the only option that was feasible. – Bruno Lowagie Sep 30 '16 at 06:34
  • Sorry if I offended you with my questions, I don't want to waste your energy. I think the purpose is clear to those who want to see it. I considered important to know your opinion on the version 4.2.1 and why is still available in maven central. I am not saying that people should use it or taking any preference, I am just trying to find the logic on all this crazy licensing stuff. – raspacorp Sep 30 '16 at 15:04
  • Well, we looked at all options and redirecting to iText 5 was the most efficient option. – Bruno Lowagie Sep 30 '16 at 15:05
  • Last one I swear; about your last comment. Is a maven dependency coming from central for version '4.2.1', groupId 'com.lowagie', artifactId 'itext' being redirected/rerouted to iText 5? – raspacorp Sep 30 '16 at 17:26
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    See https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.lowagie/itext/4.2.2 We didn't change "history". We created 4.2.2 and moved lowagie (which is my name) to itextpdf (which is the groupId we use for iText 5). That broke many Maven builds which caused a lot of (unfair) anger among developers, but it was necessary to make those developers aware of the fact that they weren't using the real iText. – Bruno Lowagie Oct 01 '16 at 09:38
  • @BrunoLowagie, Why isn't there an obvious place to report piracy on itextpdf.com? – Michael M Mar 17 '17 at 12:45
  • @MichaelMügge People report piracy using one of the mail addresses they find on the site. Usually, a sales address. – Bruno Lowagie Mar 17 '17 at 14:03
  • @BrunoLowagie, I did that recently. Since there was no response, one can only hope that it will be acted upon. – Michael M Mar 17 '17 at 18:32
  • @MichaelMügge I'll double-check. Thanks! – Bruno Lowagie Mar 17 '17 at 19:53
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    Can I user IText 7 for free for an intranet web portal used by my company which will never be public? – Maya Oct 19 '19 at 14:21
  • Summary: iText can be used only in open source projects. For your own project you have to pay. – garish Oct 05 '20 at 11:37