Regarding GPLv2 and the implicit patent grant/license, I agree the legalities are not so cut and dry as I originally stated. Because the grant is implicit, there will be varying interpretations as to the extent of the protection and in what jurisdictions it applies. As far as I know it has not been tested in any court. It is however more protection than Google currently has. This wiki (beware the anti software patent bias) highlights the relevant sections in the license so you can read for yourself. http://en.swpat.org/wiki/GPLv2_and_patents. I am not a lawyer and undoubtedly view the world through the rose- colored glasses of a developer so rather than go into legalities, I will state what the GPL means to me.
At the heart of the GPL is the notion of free software and its intent is to uphold the four freedoms as written by Richard Stallman. That is, for any user of free software the following freedoms are given: * The freedom to run the program, for any purpose. * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor. The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community beneļ¬ts. Thus, when an individual or organisation releases software under the GPL, they are making a promise to their users to uphold these freedoms regarding the licensed software. If we take the hypothetical situation where Android was based on the OpenJDK under the terms of the GPL. In effect Oracle would have made a promise to Google stating that it would not attempt to restrict the four freedoms with regard to the OpenJDK. If Oracle then attempted to use patent law (or any other law) to restrict the distribution of Android, Oracle would have broken its promise. Moreover, broken the promise made to all users of the OpenJDK. Note that even if Oracle won the case in law, they still would have lost the trust of the community. This situation would be much more ominous and damaging to our community than the current situation where Google has received no such promise from Oracle. Orien -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
