Well, the IBM JRE (JVM) is the way go then.
I'll try to create a modified tomcat package, including the smeserver config I had created as a separate package,
and try to maintain as much functionality as possible.
The available tomcat rpms need packages which have been integrated with the Java JVM, so that's just not going to work as is.
edit) No, nevermind, it's working just fine with original packages.. I was doing it all wrong
I guess the licensing makes sense, and I wouldn't be bothered by it, if they would just say it as it is. I guess that would be (nearly) impossible when covering most legal loopholes? Anyway, so be it.
Thanks for the info, pcbaldwin, greg