posted 19 years ago
You'd have to look at the licensing for the other code. A lot of open source projects use one of the GNU licensing flavors which say you can include their code or binaries in your product so long as you include it complete and unchanged and make your code available the same way. (Ok, it's pages of legaleze, so that isn't 100% it.) If you're developing code for your company or for something you'd like to sell, you probably ought to have an expert look over the licenses of the things you use and write you one, too.
Another option you see sometimes is a statement that "This product requires jars from so and so. It's up to you to go get them and make sure you have legal licenses. Here's a link to their web site. Good luck!" That might be viable for a non-commercial product, but it would surely turn off non-geeky customers.
A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of the idea. John Ciardi