[also available online at http://s.apache.org/P12]
The Apache Software Foundation has resigned its seat on the Java SE/EE
Executive Committee. Apache has served on the EC for the past 10 years,
winning the JCP "Member of the Year" award 4 times, and recently was ratified
for another term with support from 95% of the voting community. Further, the
project communities of the ASF, home to Apache Tomcat, Ant, Xerces, Geronimo,
Velocity and nearly a 100 mainstay java components have implemented countless
JSRs and serve on and contribute to many of the JCPs technical expert groups.
We'd like to provide some explanation to the community as to why we're taking
this significant step.
The recent Java SE 7 vote was the last chance for the JCP EC to demonstrate
that the EC has any intent to defend the JCP as an open specification process,
and demonstrate that the letter and spirit of the law matter. To sum up the
issues at stake in the vote, we believe that while continuing to fail to uphold
their responsibilities under the JSPA, Oracle provided the EC with a Java SE 7
specification request and license that are self-contradictory, severely
restrict distribution of independent implementations of the spec, and most
importantly, prohibit the distribution of independent open source
implementations of the spec. Oracle has refused to answer any reasonable and
responsible questions from the EC regarding these problems.
In the phrase "fail to uphold their responsibilities under the JSPA", we are
referring to Oracle's refusal to provide the ASF's Harmony project with a TCK
license for Java SE that complies with Oracle's obligations under the JSPA as
well as public promises made to the Java community by officers of Sun
Microsystems (recently acquired by Oracle.) This breach of the JSPA was begun
by Sun Microsystems in August of 2006 and is a policy that Oracle explicitly
continues today. For more information on this dispute, see our open letter to
Sun Microsystems (LINK).
This vote was the only real power the Executive Committee has as the governing
body of the Java specification ecosystem, and as we indicated previously (LINK)
we were looking for the EC to protect the rights of implementers to the degree
they are able, as well as preserve the integrity of the JCP licensing structure
by ensuring that JCP specifications are able to be freely implemented and
distributed. We don't believe this is an unreasonable position - it should be
noted that the majority of the EC members, including Oracle, have publicly
stated that restrictions on distribution such as those found in the Java SE 7
license have no place in the JCP - and two distinguished individual members of
the EC, Doug Lea and Tim Peierls, both have resigned in protest over the same
issue (LINKS).
By approving Java SE 7, the EC has failed on both counts : the members of the
EC refused to stand up for the rights of implementers, and by accepting
Oracle's TCK license terms for Java SE 7, they let the integrity of the JCP's
licensing structure be broken.
The Apache Software Foundation concludes that that JCP is not an open
specification process - that Java specifications are proprietary technology
that must be licensed directly from the spec lead under whatever terms the spec
lead chooses; that the commercial concerns of a single entity, Oracle, will
continue to seriously interfere with and bias the transparent governance of the
ecosystem; that it is impossible to distribute independent implementations of
JSRs under open source licenses such that users are protected from IP
litigation by expert group members or the spec lead; and finally, the EC is
unwilling or unable to assert the basic power of their role in the JCP
governance process.
In short, the EC and the Java Community Process are neither.
To that end, our representative has informed the JCP's Program Management
Office of our resignation, effective immediately. As such, the ASF is removing
all official representatives from any and all JSRs. In addition, we will refuse
any renewal of our JCP membership and, of course, our EC position.
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