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It is a compelling argument on Oracle's side.
However I doubt many would read it.
Unfortunately tech bloggers like Thom don't actually write code, they don't appreciate the effort that goes into it.
If I scraped this site and all the articles, I can guarantee they wouldn't be happy.
Edited 2012-04-18 09:33 UTC
All fine and dandy, but the Java patents in play have been virtually obliterated, the copyright claim is over a smidge of third party submitted code, which, correct me if I'm wrong, has never been distributed with a handset in the wild and never was a critical part of Android. So no huge smoking gun there.
Google never copied Java lock, stock and barrel, removed the copyright notices and claimed it as their own. Google wrote their own virtual machine with its own unique bytecode, retrofitted Java the language (syntax and grammar) on top of that and made use of independently written modules from the Apache Harmony project. No misappropriation of Sun/Oracle code there.
The only real lever Sun/Oracle have is trademark protection over what is and is not Java. Even more so, now that their "sooper sekrit" methods and what not are out in the open under the GPL. Google has never marketed Android or the Nexus handsets as Java phones or Java powered. They have been consistent in telling the world that Dalvik is NOT Java. Therefore they need not be compatible and need not pass the TCK.
Yes, programming can be an arduous task and sometimes you can get emotionally invested in the end result, but at the end of the day (and I know this is very irreverent) a program is nothing but a list of instructions to be carried out by an advanced calculator.





Member since:
2007-07-27
Have you read this?
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/features/opening-slides-1592541....
Oracle reveals several internal mails from Google.
page 77, 78
"My proposal is that we take a license that specifically grants the right for us to Open Source our product. We’ll pay Sun for the license and the TCK. Before we release our product to the open source community we'll make sure our JVM passes all TCK certification tests so that we don't create fragmentation"
"Q48. Does Android support existing Java apps?
A. No.
Q49. Is Android Java compatible?
A. No."
And page 90 is also informative.
Some questions: all companies paid Java license money to Sun (IBM, Oracle, etc) but Google choose not to pay. Why is that? Why is Google bosses saying "we need to negotiate a Java license from Sun". Why is Google saying "Android Java is fragmenting Java"? Just read the slides.