On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 4:29 AM, Grant Robertson <[email protected]> wrote: > I would like to get back into Java development, however the terms of the > Oracle Binary Code License (BCL) and this whole thing about becoming a > "Licensee" has me a bit confused. With the way Oracle has worded the text > about becoming a licensee and with all the talk about the "Commercial > Features" in the BCL, I can't tell if I will be able to even say, "This > program is written in Java" without paying Oracle a lot of money.
There are some blog entries from Oracle on the JDK licensing situation including "JRockit is Now Free (and Other Java License Updates)" https://blogs.oracle.com/henrik/entry/jrockit_is_now_free_and > On the page about becoming a "Licensee," when they say, "Only Java SE > licensees can claim compatibility with Java SE specifications and can ship > Java SE-branded products." are they talking about programs written in Java > or are they really only talking about writing an alternative JVM or JDK? If > the former, then I am so outta here. > > I have read in some places (I lost track of where) that the "commercial > features" will be easy to spot in the documentation so one can avoid using > them. According to this page, >> >> "Some of the packages described in Installation of Java SE Product >> Editions install commercial features that are restricted to Oracle Java SE >> Advanced or Oracle Java SE Suite. For example, the JRockit JDK comes with a >> deterministic garbage collector that requires a Oracle Java SE Suite >> license." > > How the heck am I supposed to make sure that a particular garbage collector > does not end up being used when my program runs? On that point in particular, quoting from "Java 7 Questions & Answers " https://blogs.oracle.com/henrik/entry/java_7_questions_answers "Q: I read the JDK 7 license. It mentions something about Commercial Features, what does that mean? A: Sun versioned the end user license together with the binary, which made it clear what terms applied for a particular release. However, it also meant that a Java user would have to re-review the license for every new release (including update release), which lead to uncertainty around future licensing conditions. Oracle's approach is to minimize the number of licenses used for Java - ideally getting it down to only one. This means a more predictable and stable licensing situation, at the cost of a slightly more complex license text since it needs to be able to cover more scenarios. When we made JRockit free we modified the Binary Code License to make it cover all versions of Java, as well as JRockit. This was announced in one of my previous blog posts. The "Commercial Features" clause is there to allow us to port over value-add features from JRockit to the converged Hotspot/JRockit JVM starting with JDK 7. Full details on what features are non-free can be found in the product documentation. In the standard JDK 7 GA binaries, there are no commercial features so there is no risk that you use them by mistake. As we move such features to JDK 7 in a future update, our plan is to require an explicit flag to enable them. Note that these features are only restricted "for any commercial or production purpose" so individual developers need not worry. For full information, read the license text itself. " HTH, -Joe -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "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.
