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As a developer for a website of my client, I want to use Ghostscript sharp to generate image from PDF for a particular functionality. Can anyone tell me if it require to purchase licence to use Ghostscript? Thanks in advance..

Dave Miller
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Mukesh Kumar
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2 Answers2

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It depends essentially on how you use Ghostscript.

Ghostscript is licensed under the Affero General Public Licence v3. If, after reading that licence, you are in doubt as to whether your usage means you need a commercial licence, then I suggest that you should seek professional legal advice.

A site for answering software development questions is not a good place to ask about legal niceties really, and its very off-topic here.

KenS
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  • Thanks @KenS. I know, it's a non-technical question but reason to ask hear is, I am also a developer and don't have good legal knowledge. Anyone, please share here if already gone through this question. I am using ghostscriptsharp nuget package for my client. – Mukesh Kumar Nov 09 '16 at 09:09
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    I'm going to guess that you are linking to the GhostscriptSharp package, which links to the Ghostscript DLL. I am reasonably sure that Artifex at least will regard that as a 'derivative work'. I Am Not A Lawyer etc, but I believe that means you either need to make all the source code of the derivative work open, or get a commercial license. – KenS Nov 09 '16 at 09:37
  • what do you mean by derivative work? Is it all the codebase of complete website? I am only using an already present method of Ghostscriptsharp. – Mukesh Kumar Nov 09 '16 at 19:05
  • Now you're into lawyer territory again. GhostscriptSharp, as far as I'm aware, uses the Ghostscript DLL, which makes it a 'derivative work'. Anything which then links against GhostscriptSharp is therefore also a derivative work. It doesn't matter (from Artifex's point of view) whether that involves static or dynamic linking. Clearly since I don't know how your code is written I cannot tell you whether that means the 'complete website' or not. If in doubt, pay for competent legal advice or seek a licence. – KenS Nov 10 '16 at 08:45
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No, you can't use Ghostscript for free but you can reference your client to download Ghostscript and install it on their system and now you can use on can say your s/w can legally use it

PankajSingh
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  • I am using it for a website. I don't think it is required to installed. There is Nuget package containing required dlls. – Mukesh Kumar Nov 11 '16 at 11:10
  • I was thinking that it is for window application because I can show you another commercial software product which is using the same method which I mention above. [Here It is](https://www.kerneldatarecovery.com/convert-ost-to-pst.html) – PankajSingh Nov 11 '16 at 13:13
  • Not if it links to the DLL. It is legal (though possibly immoral) to download Ghostscript and fork a process to execute the supplied Ghostscript binary. My point below related to the fact that the original poster was using GhostscriptSharp which (I believe) the copyright holder will regard as a derivative work, since it either statically or dynamically links to the Ghostscript DLL or library, rather than running the executable. Lawyers may disagree with this interpretation, I Am Not A Lawyer, etc. – KenS Nov 11 '16 at 20:16