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| Authored by: bugstomper on Friday, April 20 2012 @ 12:16 PM EDT |
I'm not sure what is not clear about the slide that needs explanation.
The part about not needing a license to write applications in the Java language
is necessary for them to say because they have explicitly said that before and
could not get away with claiming that you need a license just to write Java
programs.
The claim that you need a license to download Java software components I think
refers to the fact that when you go to their website to download anything such
as the JDK or other Java class libraries or the JRE, you have to click through a
license agreement that has the typical "This software is copyright blah
blah licensed for blah blah You agree to ...". It really doesn't matter
what they say in their license or if it grants rights that you need them to
grant, but there is a license to download it and they say that you need it.
Finally there is "Provide class libraries based on the API design". As
far as I can tell that is something that has never been explicitly stated as
required before this trial and has been made up as part of their theory for this
case. But it is is very clear. Oracle is now claiming that they have a copyright
on the "SSO" of the Java class libraries that makes any clean-room
independent implementation of those libraries a derivative work under copyright
law. That is exactly what they are claiming and that is the license that the
second point of the slide is referring to.
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| Authored by: mschmitz on Friday, April 20 2012 @ 07:58 PM EDT |
PJ, what they _claim_ by that is that all you can do with Java is write
applications to their existing Java API. Nothing more, nothing less.
Anything else requires a license - 'downloading software components' IMO relates
to getting their class libraries (as I've called them. their own API
implementation) which you need to run your application.
You may even need parts of those to compile your application, something I'd say
very much comes under 'write' (being something of a trial-and-error programmer
myself).
'Provide class libraries' is their attempt, in this trial, to claim they own the
Java language to a degree anyone else is prohibted from even developing their
own implementation of the language. More specifically, any independent
implementation of language toolchain and runtime - compiler, libraries, VM,
anything that implements the language and API specifications. Anything that
makes Java a useful language and not just an academic exercise in compiler
theory.
Crucial to that theory is that the 'API' (from the specification down!) can be
copyrighted so that a license would be required. This would make Java the first
language that cannot be freely reimplemented - something, to my understanding,
entirely without precedent. And given how much Java derives from its ancestors
(C, C++, Objective-C come to mind). utterly unjustified.
Again, this is my understanding based on what I've seen reported. Correct me if
I'm wrong - have there been computer languages that were encumbered by copyright
to the extent they could not be freely implemented? I'm sure RMS or someone at
FSF or EFF might know this for sure.
Note that the attempt to keep others from providing their own (free or not)
implementation of Java is not new. Sun has long clung to that view, but their
method was 'if it does not pass the TCK kit you cannot legally call it Java, and
we are not going to license the TCK to you if we suspect you of forking the Java
ecosystem'. To my recollection, that was sufficient to rein in Microsofts
attempts to embrace and extinguish Java, and that's the root cause of Apache not
having their not-quite-Java certified (Sun never conceded to license the TCK).
Sun never went all-out and claimed the API specs are copyrighted. Sun
open-sourcing Java ought to prohibit Oracle from now trying to pretend the API
specification needs a license.
Should they succeed, I'd estimate that's the final nail in Java's coffin - film
at 11.
-- mschmitz
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