Oracle Sues Google Over Android's Use of Java

The legal complaint appears to claim Google is violating Oracle's Java patents and copyrights in very fundamental ways - so fundamental that one can only wonder who's next on Oracle's hit list? Is it IBM, or maybe Apache, possibly Red Hat (since Larry Ellison was reportedly angry when he failed to acquire them.)

In short, it seems Oracle has erased in one fell swoop the goodwill and trust Sun nurtured and built up for years in the open source community. Regardless of whether Oracle prevails in the courtroom, there is no possibility that the Redwood Shores giant can "win" this case. This lawsuit is sure to alienate thousands of developers, many of whom already doubted Oracle and felt disaffected after the Sun acquisition.

Will the last person to leave the Java community please turn out the lights?

In a vindictive world i can see not being able to find anything on Oracle in a Google search.

this is not about Java but the use of Java brand and VM technologies. I think Oracle has every right to go after google on this. Apperantly, other VM developer companies who do not have licensing deal with old Sun and making profit will also get hammered for damages.

I'm not a fan of lawsuits but this has been brewing for 5 years so Google must have known. Oracle claims they actually copied Java source code and effectively relicensed it under an Apache license, that is a GPL violation and a fork.

I don't like the usage of the patent claims (personally very much against software patents) but if Google was negligent enough to use GPL licensed code and publish it as Apache licensed code they have only themselves to blame (I'm using a NexusOne myself so I seriously hope they come to an understanding and unify the Java brand rather than the current confusing mess).

Wow, you don't see how this is bad for Java?  If Google moves away from Java on Android then that's a massive blow to Java.  Android is going to be huge.  And the ripple effect of developers not trusting Oracle, along with companies like IBM looking at Oracle with a suspicious eye.  Java was already in bad shape.  This is a crippling blow.

IBM pays royalties to Sun/Oracle. And, I really do not see the role of android in Java's popularity.

I agree. I don't see how anyone couldn't see that this is a potential disaster for Java. Or maybe I'm missing something. If the JVM is GPL 2 then I'm not sure I understand how you can complain about someone using the code freely as long as they do so according to the conditions of the license. Its obviously free to download, use and distribute the JVM so would thing be ok if they had just done that instead of working on Dalvik? Its obviously potentially harmful to Java because Java rides on the back of many FOSS projects. What is Java without Tomcat, Jetty, Commons, MyFaces and other JSF libraries, Hibernate, JBoss, Eclipse and many others. Aren't all of these open source. Doesn't Oracle risk offending or scaring them by pulling patent cards on GPLed software? If they all decide to drop their projects what will Java stand on? I get the feeling that Oracle is planning to lock Java down and they don't want alternatives out there for people to run to. And as for Androids importance to the popularity of Java Oracle made it clear in their own filing. If Android and Dalvik are hurting them then its obvious that they must be popular. However since Google is using the Java syntax they are actually pulling more people to Java and in turn helping Oracle. I honestly thought Oracle would come out on the side of Google and use them as a vehicle. Why not work with them, develop tools, and even use Android as a platform for JavaFX? That sounds more like what open source communities are about. Instead they attack them and sink their own ship in the process.

I am confused: These events benefits no-one but Microsoft (.NET), what logic is behind Oracle's reasoning for pulling this one? Was it their motive for buying Sun in the first place? Or did they just discovered the honey-pot and moved in when shipment reached 200K units daily? Oracle already lost plenty of Sun talent, now they stand to loose the community which is the single largest reason behind Java's success. It seems they are determined to become a license milk farm (as with their DBMS) but that seems like an awfully uncertain strategy for the long-term.

Google hijacked Java (the language) for their very own controlled ecosystems (Android & GWT). Things like "community" and "goodwill" vanish when business interests collide. Oracle is doing the right thing for themselves, to (try to) make clear who is the boss. Reminds me Apple vs Adobe/Flash and Sun vs Microsoft back in the day.

 

I am shocked. I cannot imagine that whatever amount of $$$ Oracle could get out of this would make up for them becoming the #1 enemy of their whole developer base.

The GPL violation claim is my personal undestanding assuming code was taken from the JDK and even if it was taken prior to the GPL you could still presume that this is relevant in that context.

Since Android was an external company purchased by Google its highly possible that this is old code that was never removed (e.g. within Dalvik or the Harmony project, again pure speculation). Since Sun has been sitting on this for years and discussed it with Google as far as I understand I'm guessing they have better evidence than SCO had against Linux... 

I would not be surprised if Googles engineer driven mentality was a bit lax on copyrights, they don't have the corporate beurocracy Oracle/Sun have which is normally a HUGE advantage but it can lead to miss judegements e.g. Buzz, wifi collection, China etc. 

I seriously hope both sides settle fast and avoid a long/painful courtroom drama that won't benefit anyone.

Google did mobile right... Now Oracle wants to sue, this stinks.

If J2ME didn't have so many issues such as fragmentation, SDK only in Windows (CDC), JavaFX not on mobile devices yet, developers would have flocked to J2ME, but instead they've gone to Android / IPhone development.

J2ME is still the number one platform for mobile, but it's too hard to build apps that will work on all the devices, Sun screwed it up, period.

Although Android does have some fragmentation problems, it is relatively simple to write applications that address 1.6 and up, which is a majority of devices.

Something as simple as getting a CDC emulator for Linux, Sun couldn't do... The god damn things were mostly written in Java what was the problem!! Google released the Android SDK with full emulators on Mac / Windows & Linux in version 1.0 of the SDK, frankly that should have been an embarassment to Sun..

Google tried to skirt Sun's license terms way back in 2007. Dalvik is an attempt by Google to end run Sun's original license terms and Oracle is calling foul. Microsoft did a virtual machine cross license with Sun years ago for mobile apps - why shouldn't Google play by the same rules: Here in my view is the right analysis: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/08/13/how-google-tried-to-end-run-java-and-why-oracle%E2%80%99s-lawsuit-has-merit/

Fabrizio, actually there is a copyright infrigement claim in the lawsuit too.

 And the copyright infrigement claim is what should be scary to framework developers and your regular developers, because that could be a sign of things to come.

 I think Oracle's next step is to close up Java again and really start getting tough with the licensing terms.  They claim that Java is the big asset in the Sun acquisition, and knowing Oracle's history you better believe they're going to capitalize on it, even if it means alienating developers and others in the industry.  Oracle just doesn't care.  They figure too many organizations are too locked in to move away.

 

 

Mark, the copyright infringement claim comes after all the patents and doesn't explain where the copyright infringement has occurred (it refers generically to Java source code, documents, specifications). Until this is clarified, I don't see the point. Also because, if any, at risk would be people who do a parallel thing to Java, not just people who develops a framework on it.

I don't see it always makes sense to ask "what's after", beyond Google. The patents are about using a certain kind of VM and if one should just be consequential, Oracle should be going to sue Microsoft and every other corporate who makes use of a VM. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Oracle is going to declare war to the world. I think it's only acting against Google. I've read many doomsday warnings in the past ten years that frankly I prefer first to see some more details before declaring a disaster.