lunedì 23 agosto 2010

Oracle on Dalvik, ZFS

As any other java developer, I'm following the lawsuite of Oracle on Google and found this: Dalvik: how Google routed around Sun’s IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME
It dates back to November 12th, 2007 and cites:

* The Apache License v2 forces the contributor to license the IP along with the code but only the IP that the contributor owns (you can’t give away stuff others own, obviously). This means that if Android does, in fact, use some of Sun’s IP, it is entirely possible for Sun to sue any hardware vendor that ships Android with their phones and prevent them from shipping. Also, Sun could knock at your own door and ask you to license the Java IP that you need to be able to run Android on your phone (in case, say, you bought an OEM phone and installed the software yourself) even if there is no trace of ‘java’ on your phone memory.

It's intersting to read just below, and you find something about ZFS:

* Sun is under fire for IP issues related to ZFS and they claimed that it’s an “attack on free software”. I’m curious to see how they’re going to spin their own IP attack on Android (because I bet there’s going to be one).

The author refers to NetApp against Sun, now Oracle, on ZFS, see link on status on july 2010

I'm sad for Java VM and Android, but I think Google should find an agreement because it's going to loose. Google doesn't have, to my knowledge, other patents to exchange for with Oracle.
Otherwise Google has to indemnify its partners and set apart a lot of money in case of defeat, just to protect Android's momentum in the mobile market.
Any VM implementation is at risk, it's not for JVM only, so no Android 4.0 based on other languages.
Or perhaps Google should acquire NetApp and others to have a bunch of patents to exchange for Dalvik, go Google !