Hi,

I wanted to ask (probably a silly) question regarding the packaging of existing open-source components as OSGi bundles (more specifically Jasper Reports).

I have an application that I am converting from a monolithic jar-hell type architecture to something more moduler and OSGi is my weapon of choice. There are various modules I have in mind but one of the modules is a reporting module.

My own reporting module will be a jar file containing my code that should reference a Jasper Reports bundle. Trouble is, Jasper reports depends on far far too many libraries and is quite monolithic in its own right. I therefore wish to build my own Jasper Reports bundle but this is where I start getting confused about the legality of repackaging. I don't plan to re-compile but I do plan to re-bundle removing known items that I do not require.

Can anyone offer advice on whether I am permitted to repackage (not recompile or extend) open-source libraries into OSGi bundles without falling foul of 'derivative works' clause of LGPL?

I noticed that Groovy seems to offer some monolithic jars that include all dependancies and actually goes so far as to re-arrange the packages of its dependancies so that there are no namespace conflicts. This seems to me to be a violation of the license but if anyone can reassure me that this is legal then I would feel safer about my less intrusive custom-bundling of Jasper reports.

Thanks for your time,

Chris