JacORB is open source licensed under the GNU Library (or: Lesser) General Public License (LGPL). Here are the main features of the LGPL with respect to its use by proprietary, i.e. non-open source products:
- A proprietary product can use JacORB (as a library) without having to
become open source under the LGPL. This is the main difference to the
GPL.
So, if you for example use JacORB to write an application server,
you can sell this product without any restrictions (ship it with
JacORB included) and you do not have to make your application open
source.
- If an application makes modifications to JacORB itself and the
modified JacORB is redistributed with the application, the modified
JacORB must be distributed under the LGPL.
The preferred way is to source the modifications (not the
application!) back into JacORB, but that is not required. Typically,
how this works is that you will contact the JacORB project with the
modifications for JacORB, and we then decide whether to incorporate
them or not. For more information on how to contribute, click here.