Licensing Compliance Inquiry: Direct Dependency on ImageSharp in IronSoftware.Common.Drawing

[tonyqus]

I am raising this issue to bring a potential licensing compliance matter to the attention of the SixLabors team. It appears that IronXL (and its core dependency IronSoftware.Common.Drawing) may be incorporating significant portions of ImageSharp’s logic or implementation details in a manner that may not align with the SixLabors Split License.

Background

I'm doing deep investigation on IronXL. I noticed that IronSoftware.Common.Drawing serves as the foundational imaging layer for Iron Software's commercial suite. Upon closer inspection, several technical implementations within this package show a high degree of correlation with the architectural patterns and specific algorithmic implementations pioneered by ImageSharp.

I would like to bring a licensing compliance matter to the attention of the SixLabors maintainers. It has been observed that IronSoftware.Common.Drawing—a foundational package used across the entire Iron Software product suite (including IronXL, IronPDF, IronOCR, etc.)—directly references and utilizes ImageSharp.

Key Findings

• Direct Dependency: IronSoftware.Common.Drawing appears to include or directly depend on ImageSharp assemblies to handle its core imaging functionality.

• Commercial Distribution: Iron Software markets these products under heavy commercial licensing fees.

• Licensing Conflict: Under the SixLabors Split License, commercial use of ImageSharp requires a paid license from SixLabors. Given the scale and nature of Iron Software's commercial offerings, there is a significant concern regarding whether they are in full compliance with your licensing terms.

Systemic Impact

Because IronSoftware.Common.Drawing is a shared core component, this dependency is propagated across their entire portfolio. This means that every user of an Iron Software product may inadvertently be using an improperly licensed version of ImageSharp.

Conclusion

As a member of the .NET open-source community and a maintainer myself, I believe it is crucial to ensure that commercial entities respect the sustainability models of the libraries they build upon. I am flagging this so the SixLabors team can verify if a valid commercial agreement is in place or if further action is required to protect your intellectual property.

[tonyqus]

https://tonyqus.medium.com/the-transitive-loophole-how-iron-software-bypassed-imagesharps-commercial-license-8909876257ba