Clarification on redistributability of MSSQL JDBC Driver 8.4 components

Question

Dear Microsoft Support Team,

We are reviewing the licensing terms for Microsoft JDBC Driver 8.4 for SQL Server, specifically for the native authentication library mssql-jdbc_auth-8.4.1.x64.dll and mssql-jdbc-8.4.1.jre8.jar.

The license terms state that certain components are redistributable if they are listed in a REDIST.TXT file included with the software. However, in the JDBC Driver 8.4 package (downloaded from the official Microsoft site), we are unable to locate REDIST.TXT file.

ZIP Download URL

Could you please clarify the following:

1. Are mssql-jdbc_auth-8.4.1.x64.dll and mssql-jdbc-8.4.1.jre8.jar considered redistributable under the Microsoft JDBC Driver 8.4 license terms?
2. If so, is there official documentation or an alternative location where the redistributable components for this driver are listed?
3. If one or both components are not redistributable, what is the recommended and supported approach for applications that require integrated authentication when deployed to customer environments?

This clarification is important for us to ensure compliance with Microsoft licensing requirements when distributing our application.

Thank you for your assistance.

Kind regards,
Nagarjun Shanmugaraj

Answer 1

That seems to quite an old version of the JDBC driver. The most recent version appears to be 13.2.1, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/jdbc/download-microsoft-jdbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver17. That zip file does include a REDIST.TXT.

I don't use Java myself, so I don't know the story. But possibly, Microsoft has removed REDIST.TXT from the download of 8.4, because they don't want you to redistribute such an old driver.