Jube is distributed exclusively under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3). It is free to use, deploy, and modify. That is not a commercial positioning statement — it is the foundation on which Jube is built, and it will not change.
What this means in practice
The AGPLv3 is a strong copyleft licence. In plain terms:
- You can deploy Jube in your organisation without paying a licence fee
- You can modify Jube to suit your environment
- You can build workflows, configure rules, and extend the platform using its documented extensibility framework
- You cannot take Jube, modify it, and distribute or deploy it as a closed source product
- The network provision of AGPLv3 applies — if you run a modified version of Jube as a service accessible to others, including over an internal network, the modified source must be made available to those users under the same licence. This obligation applies to modifications to Jube’s core software only. Configuration, use of documented features, case management workflows, integrations, and Configuration Artifacts are entirely your business and carry no AGPLv3 obligations — they remain proprietary to their creator as is customary in open source software of this nature. The licence concerns the software itself, not how you use it.
For system integrators and technology partners
Building services around Jube is entirely compatible with the AGPLv3, but the boundary between independent tooling and a derivative work requires honest consideration. Integrations that interact with Jube through its published APIs and documented extensibility framework are generally independent — but not automatically so. A new user interface that consumes Jube’s APIs is a useful illustration: if that interface has independent utility and existence beyond Jube, it is more likely to stand alone. If it exists solely to present Jube’s functionality under a different skin, the derivative work argument is considerably stronger regardless of how it is described or structured. Code that is tightly coupled to, embedded within, or directly modifies Jube’s internals raises the same question more sharply still. This is not a novel question in open source software, and the answer in any specific case depends on the nature and purpose of the coupling rather than what the work is called. If you are building on top of Jube and uncertain where your implementation sits, take proper legal advice. JOL does not make that determination on your behalf, but will not pretend the question does not exist.
Responsibility
Each deploying organisation is responsible for ensuring their own use and deployment of Jube complies with the AGPLv3. No commercial arrangement with an intermediary discharges that obligation. The licence is between you and the open source community — JOL’s role is to build the software and maintain the terms under which it is offered, not to police compliance.
No commercial licence exists. No partner or client relationship creates or implies one. Any representation to the contrary should be referred to Jube Operations Limited (JOL), the operating company through which all services are delivered, or Jube Holdings Limited (JHL), the ultimate owner of all intellectual property, trademarks, and the operating company, directly.
Where JHL becomes aware of material non-compliance with the AGPLv3, it reserves the right to pursue enforcement through all available means, including formal cease and desist correspondence directed at the deploying organisation.
A note for end users
Licence compliance is ultimately the responsibility of the deploying organisation — not the intermediary who implemented the software, and not JHL. In practice this means the question of AGPLv3 compliance is most often one for the end user’s own legal and compliance function to consider, particularly where implementation has been delivered through a third party. Regulated institutions will recognise this as a straightforward vendor and third party risk management question — the kind their frameworks are designed to address, and through which the obligations of the AGPLv3 find their most natural and effective expression in practice.
JHL’s position is simply that Jube is offered under AGPLv3, that no commercial licence exists or will be created, and that the obligations the licence carries travel with the software regardless of how it arrived.
Jube is, and will remain, open source.