Re: JFORK: Or a reasonable response to the Sun SCSL

[Bernd Kreimeier <bk@gamers.org>]

Ean R . Schuessler writes:
 > With the SCSL it is NOT POSSIBLE to produce a free implementation

Here's a quote I posted on the Kaffe list a while ago:

----------- snip ---------------------------------------------
Tim Wilkinson writes:
 > Also, has anyone got a legal opinion of using the 1.2 spec from Sun to
 > write an independent implementation of the 1.2 additions?  

McNealy's minor minions have one to offer:

 If the judge were to rule against Sun, "that's not a disaster for us,
 for the following reason -- it is very difficult, close to if not, in
 fact, impossible, to build an implementation of the Java platform
 without at least looking at the documentation or its specifications,"
 said Alan Baratz, president of software products and platforms at Sun.

 "Well, that's Sun intellectual property. And the judge has been very 
 clear about that, that if Microsoft uses the specs or uses the
 documentation, it is not an independent work," Baratz continued. "Or
 if Microsoft purchases something from a third party that had used the
 documentation or the specs, it's not an independent work."

>From www.javaworld.com/jw-07-idgns-lawsuit.html. For whatever it's
worth in the amazing world of bogus software patents, look and feel,
and language turned property.
---------------------- snap ------------------------------------------

Let me add that it is irrelevant whether this is bogus. It
is also irrelevant whether Baratz@Sun is history. Short of 
having Microsoft's deep pockets, a free software group can't 
risk a lawsuit. Justice is with whom can afford it. A company
who can afford to try this with M$ can surely afford to take 
on the FSF.

I would also like to point out that Sun might well have forced
already upon Kaffe and everybody else the "fork" discussed. 
I do not think that JDK 1.0 or 1.1 clean-room implementations
can be challenged after all this time, but Java 2 with new 
licensing and new restrictions is different. In that sense, 
a fork has occured already.

                                            b.



P.S.: see Slashdot for another of these "SCSL is better then
nothing" statements.