Fabrizio, IANAL, but I believe you are misunderstanding the rights that the GPL (version 2 or 3) provides on patents.
When a system is made available through the GPL, you are providing the users and developers of that system and any derived works the right to use anything patented that you have put into that system. By complying with the GPL, any user or developer gains protection under the GPL. Anything not derived from your GPLed work (and hence, not necessarily subject to that GPL license) is not protected. Neither the GPL2, nor the GPL3 require that you give up your rights on your patents, only that you give them up in relation to the licensed work. So if I own a patent on a technique that I use in a system, and then I GPL that system, then anyone using that system is protected. Indeed, anyone complying with the license of that system (ie. the GPL) is protected. My understanding is that Google's work is explicitly NOT derived from Java, which is basically what Oracle is complaining about (because if it were derived from Java, then Oracle is in a position to talk money, since you're allowed to make money on GPL'ed work). This has put Google into a position of NOT being protected by the GPL. If Dalvik were an derived work of OpenJDK, then it would have the protection of the GPL2, but it's not. Therefore, Oracle's legal team believe that they have a case to make about the patents. >From that perspective, Oracle are possibly right. So the question comes down to the validity of the patents (I'm not going to go into the copyright question. I don't believe for a minute that Google could have made such a huge blunder). As others before me have already pointed out, the patents are either trivial, have prior art, or are irrelevant. Allowing Oracle to get away with this won't just undermine Java... it will undermine software engineering in general. We (mostly) all know how evil software patents are, but we mostly have to ignore them, or else we'd hardly be able to write a "Hello World!" program without violating them. A high profile case like this may bring that issue to a head, and if Oracle were to win, then it casts a dark cloud over our profession. But does it cast the GPL into doubt? No. Paul On Aug 19, 4:12 am, Fabrizio Giudici <[email protected]> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On 8/19/10 09:55 , Vince O'Sullivan wrote:> On Aug 18, 4:02 pm, Fabrizio > Giudici > > <[email protected]> wrote: > >> In the end, all the fears around are about the OpenJDK not being > >> safe enough from patents, because it's GPLv2 and allegedly it > >> only provides partial protection from patents. > > > I'm not sure I follow the argument here. Are you saying that if > > OpenJDK (or, by implication, any other software) is released under > > the appropriate licence then it becomes immune from patent claims? > > Well, my points are: > > 1. If a good FLOSS license doesn't protect from patent claims, the > whole FLOSS world is a castle in the air. > 2. Focusing, if GPLv2 isn't protecting enough, OpenJDK is not the only > thing at risk - all things that rely on GPLv2 are potentially at risk, > such as Linux (this should be the logical conclusion of people that > don't trust Oracle, since Oracle is the 6th commiter to the Linux kernel). > > Now, I don't think that this could be true - but I fear a lots of FUD > against FLOSS if the community doesn't clarify the points in an > authoritative way. > > PS To confirm my fears about FUD, I'm keeping reading TONS of articles > with things such "Android is a Java VM", etc... with a peak yesterday > at ZDNet where I learnt that Android is based on JavaME. Since utter > incompetence seems normal for people writing articles, the step to > saying more dangerous things is short. > > - -- > Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager > Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere." > java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici -www.tidalwave.it/people > [email protected] > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla -http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ > > iEYEARECAAYFAkxs51oACgkQeDweFqgUGxe6zwCeKaeWxUY7G9QDckg0kQBHuoly > d3gAoJFNXu38Qe6H/Y6JUQQAM2AytphH > =asap > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
