JBoss, Sun Approach Agreement On J2EE License

Open-source software vendor JBoss is in the process of negotiating a J2EE license with Sun and has agreed to pay the company the required fees to obtain the license, a JBoss spokeswoman said. She said Atlanta-based JBoss will license J2EE only if it does not impact the JBoss open-source community in terms of licensing restrictions or decrease community-based JBoss innovation, she said.

The dispute over J2EE licensing between Sun and JBoss has been a bitter one, particularly over the past six months. In June, JBoss CEO Marc Fleury called Sun a "nasty" company to deal with and said Sun was responsible for breaking down negotiations earlier this year.

But Rick Saletta, a manager for Sun Java OEM and licensing, told CRN around the same time that Sun had offered JBoss a fair deal on licensing in March and it was JBoss' Fleury that inspired the months-long standoff between the companies.

At any rate, the issues likely will soon be resolved. JBoss Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy Bob Bickel, former general manager of HP middleware, is currently leading discussions with Sun for JBoss to negotiate the terms so that these requirements are met, the spokeswoman said. Bickel aims to complete a contract with Sun as soon as possible, she said.

Fleury said JBoss agreed to go ahead with licensing negotiations because it will help the company market its application server and reach more customers.

"As JBoss is moving from development to production we realize that some customers need to have that stamp of approval," Fleury said. "The J2EE brand doesn't carry a lot of technical value but mostly a market one, at least that is what we hope we will get with it."

A J2EE license from Sun is required if vendors selling Java-based application servers want to brand their application servers as fully compatible with J2EE.

J2EE compatibility is a boon for vendors because it ensures solution providers and customers that a Java application server will interoperate with other software verified to work with J2EE-compatible products.

A Sun spokesperson could be reached for comment early Friday.

Among the proposals the companies are negotiating that would make JBoss amenable to a J2EE contract is one that requires Sun to separate its Sun Community Source License (SCSL) from the J2EE Test Compatibility Kit (TCK).

Sun is offering JBoss a stand-alone TCK contract that doesn't include the SCSL agreement, only the specification agreement, according to JBoss. The spec agreement, unlike the SCSL, allows for clean-room implementations of the J2EE spec, which is what JBoss provides with its applications server.

Under the terms of JBoss' J2EE license, JBoss also would do private testing of its application server for certification separate from the open-source community, the spokeswoman said.

The approved JBoss testing team will sign all confidentiality agreements for the J2EE TCK. That team then will request changes from developers who contributed technology to the JBoss application server inconsistent with J2EE compatibility without providing the TCK to those developers themselves, according to JBoss.

The approved testing team will ultimately keep track of changes to the JBoss application server until compatibility is reached. The goal is to allow only those who have signed confidentiality agreements to have access to the TCK, so that the kit, which is Sun's intellectual property, would not be available to the community at large, the spokeswoman said.

Also, since the community may regularly submit code to the JBoss application that isn't necessarily compatible with the latest J2EE standard, JBoss will agree not to brand those releases "J2EE Certified" unless they have been fully tested and certified against the TCK.