Re: GPL Java

["Kelly Clowers" <kelly.clowers@gmail.com>]

On 11/14/06, Joshua J. Kugler <joshua@eeinternet.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday 14 November 2006 04:02, Gregory Seidman wrote:
> > Okay, so Java's GPL'd now: http://www.sun.com/2006-1113/feature/index.jsp
> > (Also http://java.net/ )
> >
> > How soon will we see packages in main at long last? Granted, a buildable
> > JDK isn't expected until Spring of next year...
>
> I'm going to be a real stinker here and offer my guess: never.  My first
> thought when I read the announcement was: "Great, it can now be included as
> the default JVM in Linux, Debian included."  But then I quickly returned to
> reality and remembered the whole trademark and DFSG thing.  While Sun
> released the *code* as GPL, I'm sure to be called Java, it will have to
> follow certain parameters.  If that simply means passing a test suite, then
> including it in Debian might be possible, but if it means Sun approving all
> the patches, approving binaries, etc, then we'll probably end up with
> IcedLatte, or some such "almost Java" package.
>
> But...I could be wrong, and honestly do hope I am.
>
> j

The equivilant of the Firefox problem would be if "Duke", the Java mascot
was under a non-free licence and Sun said the you could not use the
trademark "Java" without including Duke. But as far as I know, Sun has
not said that, and anyway, Duke has been released under the BSD licence:
https://duke.dev.java.net/


Cheers,
Kelly