C# 用于商业目的的 iText/iTextSharp：不推荐？
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iText/iTextSharp for commercial purposes : not recommended?
提问by miri
I'm not really good with licenses thats why I would like to ask here about iTextSharp and the option to use it for commercial stuff.
我不太擅长许可证，这就是为什么我想在这里询问 iTextSharp 以及将其用于商业用途的选项。
I would like to work on a software to create PDFs and upload the stuff on some DBs and to print them out. For now it should be free, but maybe one day it could become commercial. As I know iTextSharp is not LGLP it's AGPL, and AGPL is for commercial software not a good solution. Is that right? I cannot use iTextSharp (free) for commercial software?
我想开发一个软件来创建 PDF 并将这些内容上传到一些 DB 并打印出来。现在它应该是免费的，但也许有一天它会变成商业用途。据我所知，iTextSharp 不是 LGLP，而是 AGPL，而 AGPL 用于商业软件并不是一个好的解决方案。那正确吗？我不能将 iTextSharp（免费）用于商业软件？
As I know there is PDFSharp, I heard it's not that perfect as iText but it should be enough. Any suggestions?
据我所知有 PDFSharp，我听说它不如 iText 完美，但应该足够了。有什么建议？
采纳答案by Alexis Pigeon
The matter is not about you making money or not while using iText. It's a matter of you using iText in a closed source product. You can make tons of money with your product while using iText for free under the AGPL, as long as you publish your own code under the AGPL too.
问题不在于您在使用 iText 时是否赚钱。在封闭源代码产品中使用 iText 是您的问题。您可以在 AGPL 下免费使用 iText 的同时，用您的产品赚大钱，只要您也在 AGPL 下发布自己的代码。
You can later change the license of your product and make it closed source, but you'll have to use part of the tons of money you made to buy yourself an iText commercial license.
您可以稍后更改产品的许可证并使其成为封闭源代码，但是您必须使用您赚到的大量资金中的一部分来为自己购买 iText 商业许可证。
回答by Taudris
You can use older versions of iText under the license they were under at the time of release. Version 2.1.7 was the last released version which is dual-licensed under MPL and LGPL. To my knowledge, these are friendly to closed source software. You (or ideally a lawyer) will need to review the license terms to assess their suitability for your project.
您可以根据发布时的许可使用旧版本的 iText。2.1.7 版是最新发布的版本，它在 MPL 和 LGPL 下获得双重许可。据我所知，这些对闭源软件很友好。您（或理想情况下是律师）需要查看许可条款以评估其对您项目的适用性。
The iText license was changed to AGPL with the 5.0 release. There were no released 3.x or 4.x versions; the version number was increased simply to bring it in line with iTextSharp.
iText 许可证在 5.0 版本中更改为 AGPL。没有发布 3.x 或 4.x 版本；增加版本号只是为了使其与 iTextSharp 保持一致。
As iText no longer makes the older binaries available, you would do well to get the code from a trusted source and compile it yourself, for security reasons.
由于 iText 不再提供较旧的二进制文件，出于安全原因，您最好从受信任的来源获取代码并自行编译。
There is actually a 4.2.0 version in the iText SVN repository which is still under the old license scheme. Note the commit message:
iText SVN 存储库中实际上有一个 4.2.0 版本，该版本仍在旧许可方案下。请注意提交消息：
This is the final version of iText available as an MPL/LGPL library. This release is not jarred, nor officially released on the iText web site.
这是 iText 的最终版本，可用作 MPL/LGPL 库。此版本没有 jarred，也没有在 iText 网站上正式发布。
See: http://sourceforge.net/p/itext/code/HEAD/tree/tags/iText_4_2_0/(link broken)
请参阅：http: //sourceforge.net/p/itext/code/HEAD/tree/tags/iText_4_2_0/（链接已损坏）
I don't know how equivalent this is, but here is the last commit in the official iText GitHub repository before the header license change (v4.2.0 is not tagged, but I'm guessing this is it): https://github.com/itext/itextpdf/tree/935969371a8b4e28bc8bb78d6b6c9d87ab2ca8f7
我不知道这有多等价，但这是标头许可证更改之前官方 iText GitHub 存储库中的最后一次提交（未标记 v4.2.0，但我猜是这样）： https://github .com/itext/itextpdf/tree/935969371a8b4e28bc8bb78d6b6c9d87ab2ca8f7
回答by Pradeep Venishetti
The GPL does not require you to release your modified version, or any part of it. You are free to make modifications and use them privately, without ever releasing them. This applies to organizations (including companies), too; an organization can make a modified version and use it internally without ever releasing it outside the organization.
GPL 不要求您发布修改后的版本或其任何部分。您可以自由地进行修改并私下使用它们，而无需发布它们。这也适用于组织（包括公司）；组织可以制作修改版本并在内部使用，而无需将其发布到组织外部。
But if you release the modified version to the public in some way, the GPL requires you to make the modified source code available to the program's users, under the GPL.
但是，如果您以某种方式向公众发布修改后的版本，则 GPL 要求您在 GPL 下向程序用户提供修改后的源代码。
Thus, the GPL gives permission to release the modified program in certain ways, and not in other ways; but the decision of whether to release it is up to you.
因此，GPL 允许以某些方式发布修改后的程序，而不是其他方式；但是否发布由您决定。
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic
