Oracle sues Google over Java in Android
Oracle has mounted a no-holds-barred legal attack on Google's Android operating system in a lawsuit that accuses the internet giant of deliberately infringing patents and copyrights Oracle holds for the Java platform. In a complaint filed late Thursday, Oracle asked a federal court in Northern California to seize all Android …
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Semantics
Well, their patent entitled "System and method for dynamic preloading of classes through memory space cloning of a master runtime system process" can probably be discounted because if they knew what they were talking about when they wrote it, they would have understood that a class can never be instantiated, thus never preloaded - a class is just a definition, "object" is the word they were looking for.
This type of sloppy semantics is rife in computer literature and deserves to be punished.
Re: Semantics
If you've used java you should know that a class is also an object. When classloaders load jars they load all the classes into memory. Anyone who has ever run tomcat with dynamic reloading has probably noticed how much memory this usually causes applications to leak.
the sun is gone
i dont think android is a great solution. i KNOW android is a great solution.
sun would never do this. its all about money to oracle.
Looks like Oracle wants licensing fees for all Android phones
The technology included by Google DOES in fact infringe on the patents. But for that fact, some of the patents apply to all kinds of virtual machines in general. I'm almost sure that IBM has to have at least a truckload of VM patents that should "prior art" at least a few of the more general ones. Maybe ones related to Smalltalk.
As for combination of VM and native code combined, pretty sure the patent will hold up unless some of the Scheme guys out there published something in ACM a long while back.
It's sad because Oracle can go after a ton of companies depending on object oriented JITs with those very patents.
Gotta wonder though... is there actually money in Java outside of patent litigation? Really, it's Sun did a great job propagating the tech so that 15 years later, we're still using the same ugly ass class libraries, hell Oracle/Sun should be sued for AWT and Swing on matter of principle alone. But, where is there actually money to maintain Java? I just don't see there being any profit in it anywhere.
Looks like Oracle is trying to find a way to get a $1 license fee for every phone out there using their technology (that's what it used to cost 10 years ago anyway). I'm pretty sure that Oracle could very easily go after Adobe for this as well. After all, most of those patents also apply to the Flash platform. Actually, I'm almost 100% sure that the same patents should backfire on any company implementing a tracing compiler and even an EcmaScript JIT. Though the fact that EcmaScript is prototyped as opposed to object oriented might beat at least the class loader patent.
Funny to think that Apple's stubbornness regarding Java and Flash and sticking almost entirely to native code in C based languages might make them the only non-Java licensee to be immune to this.
Licensing? Javascript?
I thought that phone manufacturers like Nokia, and other software vendors that shipped Java, traditionally signed licensing agreements with Sun in order to get permission to do so (not just for copyright issues but other isues like intellectual property, patents, trademarks, etc).
I can understand why Apple wisely steered clear of including Java in their iPhone and iPads.
As a developer who used to develop Java games for mobile phones, I was a bit disappointed about Apple not including Java, but I had pulled out of that market well before then, so not so disappointed.
I was also surprised that Google chose to include Java with Android, especially when it was doing so much work with Javascript performance and its V8 Javascript engine.
Perhaps Oracle is unwittingly but finally sending out messages that Java on mobiles in dead. Java on mobiles is dead. Long live Javascript!
In other news...
Google releases an Enterprise-level database system with seamless Oracle migration.
For Free.
Time to pay for a Oracle CSID then
A quote from him : "It is not sufficient that I succeed. Everyone else must fail."
You can license Java per processor, per core and please multiply by some made up performance numbers or license named users of your web application.
Suddenly Common Language Runtime feels much more .... open?
Or maybe its just time to allow software patents but limit the duration to something like 18 month *LOL* either you capitalized on it during this time or you're a dumb fuck. you can extend for another 18 month if you really *invented* something outstanding. But hey whats outstanding in software?
I believe Larry lives closer to the edge :)
We need a Oracle sign.
Clever
Now you know why most companies wont use open source software in business..... it could suddenly become not quite open source and they get sued for billions.
Oracle is doing Microsoft and the other giants a massive favour with this.
Opensource?
This is nothing to do with open source, this is Oracle sabre-rattling with some shiny patents it has acquired. Like others have said, the vagueness of the patants makes many VMs vulnerable, it's just google is first in the firing line.
Yes, Java's open source nature meant that accidental or intentional patent infringement is facilitated much better, but it happens with closed source propietry software too.
The real criminals, the people who approve software patents in the US.
Now is the time for Xerox...
To release Smalltalk to the public domain. If they'd done that in the first place we'd not have had to put up with utter crap like C++ and (the not quite so crap) Java, let alone C#. Imagine using an OOL for OOP! Madness!
Wait what?
A patent infringement suit not filed in the Eastern District of Texas?
SOUND THE ALARMS! THE END IS NIGH!
@breakfast
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play"
Classic. I wonder how many (few) readers caught the reference?
Global Thermonuclear War among all software patent-holders seems a good idea
And I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it would help.
Actually, I'd like to see a Playmobil of the bad-movie clash of the dinosaurs - the Larry Triceratops in deadly battle with the Sergey/Larry Tyrannosaur, perhaps with a Jobsian Pterodactyl screeching encouragement overhead. I just wish I knew in advance who the little mammals surviving in the bushes would be.
Great
So now we know why Oracle really bought Sun.
What next? They sue everyone else claiming any implementation of Linux violates SUN Unix intellectual property? Same lawyer as SCO? Should be obvious what will happen. Oracle's days are numbered. Doesn't Google have more money than them anyway? Find a work around or pay them to go away and STFU so the rest of us can get back to waiting on FLASH to show up on our Android and Palm Pre handsets.
Larry...
About time to get a Larry icon for the Reg I thinks... this is going to last for a few years.
The Larry
Forgive me for being a bit cynical, but you have to wonder why Oracle didn't sue any of the wireless carriers or handset makers. Could it be that Google has something Oracle wants other than deep pockets? The value of Sun in the long term to Oracle may be its IP vault. "Sue the bastards" isn't much of a business strategy but if you're sitting on top of Sun (dwindling value), it may be all you have.
Larry strikes me as more of a Go player than a Chess master. I wonder what his endgame looks like here? Quash OSS as a philosophy? Make all bow on bended knee to The Larry? Pardon me if I look elsewhere for my DB, HW and Middleware needs..
Search results
I wonder if searches for the word "Oracle" will start showing funny results or related keywords....
Not that bad for everybody
Oracle has the ability to destroy Java, and I'm thinking that this is a significant first step.
Not all of what MS puts under the .Net Framework brand is part of the core that was submitted to
ECMA, but, for what its worth, they've made a pledge to not charge anything rather than a RAND amount. So you can implement the CLI/CLR and C# but you may be taking risks if you try to implement ASP.Net or WinFoms
No need to licence Java
Its a programming language and programming languages are excluded from copyright protection. The vast number of standard library classes can be copyrighted but as mentioned they are all open source.
The only thing you need a license for is Sun's virtual machine. Google didn't want to, partly to avoid royalties, and partly because its rubbish. So Google made their own virtual machine, and compile Java to code for that machine (instead of Java byte code). If in the process they infringed some obscure patents sun had on virtual machine implementation then that can hardly be called wilful.
I suppose it's no coincidence that oracle announce Java ME is touchui enabled today
By coincidence oracle have announced that Java ME is touchui enabled today:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/javame/touchscreen-ui-163480.html
Alternatively ...
Oracle do databases.
So do Google.
Oracle would like to use some of Google's technology or patents.
Oracle will shut up if Google lets them do x y and z.
That is all.
title
"Google's Android infringes Oracle America's copyrights in Java and Google is not licensed to do so."
O rly? so you need a license in order to infringe, now that's novel.
David Boies needs to go Boiel his head.
Software patent lawsuits really spoil the day of tomorrow IMHO.
Prior Art
Patent 7426720 looks like malloc so there is some prior art. and it should be dismissed as invalid.:-)
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