Finding out the licenses of JAR libraries

The Maven "Project Info Reports" plugin produces a Dependencies report that includes the Licenses for the dependencies. Here's an example.

Obviously, this depends on the dependent POMs declaring their dependencies properly, and it requires that you build your site documentation "online".

During the acquisition of a company I was working for, the acquiring company used the following software / consultancy to do what you're describing.

http://www.blackducksoftware.com/transact

Although I'm guessing you were probably looking for a free alternative. There may be other methods, but the fact this company makes money doing this suggests an alternative is probably less thorough/accurate.

I also find this website (https://www.versioneye.com) provides license info. For instance, https://www.versioneye.com/java/tomcat:jasper-runtime/5.5.23 says License: Apache License 2.0

October 19, 2017

I’m shutting down VersionEye by end of this year!

I started the project round about 6 years ago and so far it was a journey with many ups and downs. The typical StartUp rollercoaster thing. I raised Money from a big VC in Berlin and almost went bankrupt after that. Raised Money again from small Angel Investors to prevent bankruptcy. Won one of the biggest Software companies in the world as customer and established a stable income for the company.