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Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

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Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#31

Sun released the majority of Java under the GPL. How can you claim that someone you licensed the code to is infringing both its copyright and its patent? I'm looking forward to some more detail when Google publishes a response.

But Google's android does not use Sun's GPLed Java, it uses their own Java called "Dalvik" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_(software)

Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#32
post #7

The biggest issue I see with Oracle's lawsuit is not with Android itself, but the future of Java as an open platform. The claims are pretty serious, and Oracle is going straight for the jugular. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out, but I've got to hope that Google will come out of this in good shape for the sake of Java. It's unfortunate that Oracle is interpreting Google's implementation of Dalvik and a Ja…

Oracle may claim that Google infringes on all those patents, but they'll never sue. Patents are just a nuclear deterrent.

Edit: Wow, -7 and dropping. I guess I should have included a sarcasm symbol. Spoiler: My point was that patents do get used, and this argument about them just being for defense is nonsense.

Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#33

As background, from WikiPedia: "On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of Java as open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On May 8, 2007, Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code available under free software/open-source distribution terms, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright." If Sun willingly made the code GPL licensed, an…

Exactly this is the core question here.

I am really curious about how the law sees this.

And I would really wonder if they decide against Google. It looks almost like a trap of Sun/Oracle then, kind of "hey, here, use our code, it is open source now grin".

Or to put it different: Why did they use the GPL licence?

Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#35
post #6

Excuse the really really obvious question, but how can you sue somebody for intellectual property infringement on open-source software? Didn't you already give anybody the license to do what they wanted with it? If they've violated the license terms in some way, isn't that different from IP infringement?

I'm struggling to understand this as well - I would have thought OSS licensing and software patents would be incompatible.

Sadly they are not.

This is why the W3C has a patent policy [1] to prevent contributed software and specifications from being covered by patents.

[1]: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/

If this still does not make any sense, realize that patents and copyrights, while both forms of IP, are completely different, legally. Also recall how open source GIF implementations were still covered by the Unisys patent.

Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#36

As background, from WikiPedia: "On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of Java as open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On May 8, 2007, Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code available under free software/open-source distribution terms, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright." If Sun willingly made the code GPL licensed, an…

Google is using NONE of the Sun code. They use their own VM, and use the Apache Harmony class libraries. That's why it isn't called "Java"

The Sun release has some weird field-of-use restrictions associated with it.

Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#37

As background, from WikiPedia: "On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of Java as open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On May 8, 2007, Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code available under free software/open-source distribution terms, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright." If Sun willingly made the code GPL licensed, an…

Giving out software under the GPL v2 does not mean that you grant others a patent license, that isn't within the scope of the GPL v2.

Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#38
post #32
post #7

The biggest issue I see with Oracle's lawsuit is not with Android itself, but the future of Java as an open platform. The claims are pretty serious, and Oracle is going straight for the jugular. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out, but I've got to hope that Google will come out of this in good shape for the sake of Java. It's unfortunate that Oracle is interpreting Google's implementation of Dalvik and a Ja…

Oracle may claim that Google infringes on all those patents, but they'll never sue. Patents are just a nuclear deterrent. Edit: Wow, -7 and dropping. I guess I should have included a sarcasm symbol. Spoiler: My point was that patents do get used, and this argument about them just being for defense is nonsense.

The first sentence in TFA:

    Oracle Corp. said Thursday it has filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google Inc.

Re: Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android

#40
post #32
post #7

The biggest issue I see with Oracle's lawsuit is not with Android itself, but the future of Java as an open platform. The claims are pretty serious, and Oracle is going straight for the jugular. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out, but I've got to hope that Google will come out of this in good shape for the sake of Java. It's unfortunate that Oracle is interpreting Google's implementation of Dalvik and a Ja…

Oracle may claim that Google infringes on all those patents, but they'll never sue. Patents are just a nuclear deterrent. Edit: Wow, -7 and dropping. I guess I should have included a sarcasm symbol. Spoiler: My point was that patents do get used, and this argument about them just being for defense is nonsense.

Well they just sued based on those patents, so I guess it's nuclear war now?
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