That risk always exists, Gerald, and really (in my humble opinion) one shouldn't worry too much about it once one chooses the OSS path. Just get on with the job. Sun was a confused company towards the end. In my view, Google should never have used Java for Android. They should have chosen something else like Python. I can imagine their reasons for choosing Java. Programmer base and so forth. But when you are starting from scratch, in a fairly new area (as Android was), it really is not all that useful to pick a language of 45-year-old programmers!
That said, I think it is a good thing this. Oracle are an interesting lot. They've monetised their 'assets' like few others. Anyone who has done any dev work on their database vs for example PostgreSQL will tell you what a grand daddy of a &*$#! it is to work with. It is inflexible, but they know where and how to make it work when it matters, just enough to fuel Larry's two jets. If they'd won this one, they'd have just found a way to fuel Larry's second sea liner as well! But as with all such fuellings, the rest of us are left to have to deal with the economic distortions that produces! So, good to see they lost. P. On Jun 05, 2012, at 10:36, Gerald Begumisa wrote: > On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 9:00 AM, Paul Bagyenda <[email protected]> wrote: > Seems to have fallen through the cracks, but very important: (Java) APIs are > not copyrightable: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120531173633275 > > > Doesn't the outcome of this case imply one should think *very* carefully > before releasing software you have commercial aspirations for as Open Source? > > Essentially, a multi-billion dollar company who sees value in what you're > doing can essentially "take over" your project by forking it, extending it, > maintaining it as open source, and then proceed to mint millions (or > billions) of dollars from it, without you getting a single cent :-). > > Oracle's aside, I don't think Sun was very happy with the way things went and > the fragmentation that Android presented, with nil reward to Sun for for > Sun's efforts in building the millions of Java developers that Android leans > on heavily. > _______________________________________________ > The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug > > Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] > Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug > To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug > > The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: > http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in any > way.
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