The current extension license is not free as it includes an usage restriction (The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil).

So, this alternative is free, as I prefere to quote  Albert Einstein :

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.

Sources are available on github : pecl-json-c

Installation:

yum --enablerepo=remi install php-pecl-json

You must disable the default json.so extension (in /etc/php.d/json.ini) before you can enable the new jsonc.so (in /etc/php.d/jsonc.ini).

json_encode function is the same than in php 5.5.

json_decode function use the json-c library.

New feature: the JsonIncrementalParser class allow to parse data incrementally without need to load all in memory.

This extension is already ready for integration in debian unstable, See Bye bye non-free PHP JSON extension.

I plan to submit a PHP RFC to switch to this new free implementation in PHP next.

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