Oracle's Java Lawsuit
Oracle filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google
Last week, Oracle filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of infringing on patented Java technologies in its Linux-based Android mobile operating system. Even though Oracle appears to have a solid basis for legal action, the lawsuit could permanently burn bridges between Oracle and the broader Java ecosystem.
It raises very serious questions about the company's stewardship of other open source technology that it obtained during the acquisition of Sun. The resulting uncertainty will likely not be conducive to retaining the customers and mindshare that Sun had built around certain open source products.
It will also likely have a serious chilling affect on community involvement and third-party contributions. It's important to recognize that the impact of this lawsuit will be felt far beyond the scope of Java and will also influence perceptions of other key open source projects obtained by Oracle, such as the MySQL database system.
Comments
Be the first to write a comment
You must me logged in to write a comment.