Is it possible to make an independent change after EoL

Question

Since Jira Server is no longer supported and is not being developed, a question has arisen. Those companies that cannot migrate to the cloud or Data Center (for various reasons) but they need to fix bugs and critical vulnerabilities - can they do it on their own? By making corrections to the code or downloading individual libraries, and so on. What does it look like from the point of view of the license agreement?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Jira Server is still supported and developed, and will be up until February 2024.  (The development is all happening in data center, but server stays in line with that).

If you have a commercial licence for it, then it is perpetual, it will continue to work after the licence expires, but you will not be able to upgrade to newer versions, and you are unsupported while unlicensed.

If you decide to modify the core of Jira's code, that's fine, but you're not allowed to share any code with anyone else.  Your modifications are not supported by Atlassian - if you modify Jira and then need to raise a support call, they may refuse to help until you remove the modifications.

Alex has already told you to talk to your legal team about the relevant part of the contract, to make sure they confirm what I've said.

But I wanted to add a couple of things -

You should also talk to your legal team about support.  Some areas are heavily regulated, and not allowed to use unsupported software.  Legally, you may have no choice but to migrate (to Cloud, DC or different systems).

DC is pretty much identical to Server (you can actually convert an existing server to a single-node DC without even having to restart it, let alone migrate).   I am guessing the reason you say you can't go to DC is simply cost?  (no need to confirm that, but if it is not the cost, I would be curious to hear of other reasons for not taking up DC)

Alex Koxaras -Relational- · Answer

Hi @Neels and welcome to the community,

From this article (https://www.atlassian.com/legal/software-license-agreement) it reads:

3.5. Your Modifications. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement (including  Section 2 (Combining the Products with Open Source Software) of Third Party Code in Atlassian Products), for any elements of the Software provided by Atlassian in source code form and to the extent permitted in the Documentation, you may modify such source code solely for purposes of developing bug fixes, customizations and additional features for the Software. Any modified source code or Documentation constitutes “Your Modifications”. You may use Your Modifications solely in support of your permitted use of the Software (and only with your own instances of the Software), but you may not distribute the code to Your Modifications to any third party. Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, Atlassian has no support, warranty, indemnification or other obligation or liability with respect to Your Modifications or their combination, interaction or use with our Software.

From what I understand you can modify your own software to fix bugs, customize it etc, but don't distribute it to anyone besides using it in your company. I would advise your legal to take a look at all the legal stuff.

Neels · Answer

Support recommended contacting the community......