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Authored by: Ian Al on Friday, May 04 2012 @ 03:32 AM EDT
Apache did not join the JCP right away, but joined after the JCP's JSPA (Java Specification Participation Agreement, aka bylaws) was revised to permit independent implementations under FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non- Discriminatory) licensing terms.

Apache then started working on Harmony and eventually sought to test it to prove compatibility, which is required by the JSPA to call Harmony "Java". You could argue also that, according to the JSPA, passing the compatibility test is required for Apache to benefit from grants to intellectual property licenses (IE patents, copyrights and trademarks) that come with being called "Java".
I suspected as much, but did not know. I also suspect that the JSPA is the legal licence to implement the Java API Specification. Rights that come from running the TCK have to be additional to the rights conferred to the JSPA. If the TCK licence terms are not accepted then they are not binding, but the JSPA contractual terms are.

Also the JSPA is a licence to join the development of the Java API Specification. (I suspect it is wider than that.) An unavoidable part of that licence is a handing over of the draft or initial specification rather than lots of website documents.

Google copied the work based on the licenced (JSPA) implementation of the Java API Specification. The copied copyright document is the final version(s) released by the JCP. Harmony publishing under the Apache licence is either licensed by the JSPA or not. The controlling documents are the JSPA and the JCP Specification.

p

---
Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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