3 ms·
They couldn't call it Java. Sun refused to allow Harmony to get a TCK license without giving up field of use rights. If a distro doesn't pass the TCK, it can't
by ecspike 14y ago
They couldn't call it Java. Sun refused to allow Harmony to get a TCK license without giving up field of use rights.
If a distro doesn't pass the TCK, it can't be called Java.
- vibrunazo 14y agoIANAL, but wouldn't that be a problem of trademark infringement, and not copyright claim as Oracle is suing them for?
- beagle3 14y agoIf they did call it Java, it would be. That's why they didn't. So Oracle can't monetize Java from Google by claiming a trademark infringement. That's why they are claiming copyright on APIs and such. Whether or not this has any merit - is what the court case is all about.
- falling 14y agoEven with the TCK license, I think the major problem was licensing of the JVM. Google wanted to make Android open source, but the JVM license requires the GPL, which Google and a lot of companies using it now won’t touch with a pole. So they had to use more liberal license, like the one they use in most of their other projects and the only way to do that was to write their own new VM (this probably also allowed them to more easily tailor it for mobile use).
- ZeroGravitas 14y agoI don't think a GPL'd JVM would be a deal-breaker. It's at about the same level as Linux, probably less likely to be tweaked by device builders. Not having the classpath exception on the libraries would be a no go though.
- wmf 14y agoSun probably wouldn't have objected to Google writing a non-GPL JVM as long as it was fully compatible with the crap Java ME or SE APIs.