Licences to use OpenIDM

[kumarpsinha]

can anyone update whether any license or commercial licensing fees are required to use the OpenIDM source code/product, customize it, and use the customized solution for commercial purposes?
Please also clarify any licensing restrictions or obligations associated with modifying, distributing, or commercially deploying the customized solution.

[vharseko]

Hi @kumarpsinha,

Short answer: no license or commercial fees are required. OpenIDM is open source under the
Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL),
which grants a world-wide, royalty-free right to use, modify, and distribute the software,
including for commercial purposes.

Obligations to be aware of (CDDL is a file-level copyleft):

• Internal use / deployment — no obligations beyond keeping the existing notices.
• Modifying existing CDDL files and distributing the result (binaries or source) — the source
  code of those modified files must be made available under the CDDL, and recipients must be told
  how to obtain it (§3.1). Keep the existing copyright/license notices (§3.3) and include a copy of
  the license.
• Your own code in separate files (custom connectors, endpoints, scripts, UI extensions, etc.)
  can stay proprietary — the CDDL allows combining it into a "Larger Work" under terms of your
  choice (§3.6). Executables may also be distributed under your own license, as long as it does not
  restrict recipients' rights to the CDDL source (§3.5).
• Trademarks are not licensed — don't brand your product as "OpenIDM" or use third-party
  trademarks.
• Third-party components bundled in the distribution are under permissive or weak-copyleft
  licenses (Apache 2.0, MIT, BSD, EPL-1.0, MPL-2.0, OFL, CDDL); see
  legal/THIRDPARTYREADME.txt.
  JDBC drivers (MySQL, Oracle, etc.) are not bundled — their licenses apply when you add them.
• Documentation inherited from ForgeRock (the openidm-doc module and some sample READMEs) is
  under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0:
  you may read and share it, but not redistribute modified versions or use the docs themselves
  commercially. This does not affect the software.
• The software is provided as is, without warranty. If you need commercial support, see the
  Approved Vendor List.

Please note this is a general summary, not legal advice — for a specific commercial distribution
model, have your legal team review the CDDL text.