Oracle, the devil in FOSS clothing?

M

MyWorld

Executive Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
5,001
When Oracle acquired SUN I mentioned that I'm in no way pleased and sceptical, well, seems like Oracle has started making moves to shut down their OSS projects and go after anyone trying to fork it.

It started for me when I noticed small changes to the VirtualBox license agreement, and then this week they really flexed their mussels and went all out:
Oracle sues Google over Java patents
Now there is a lot of FUD over exactly what is going on here, but most FOSS people, and Google, seem to think this is a case of preventing them from forking Java (which was Open Source, but not any more) and making a success of it.

Current Java License:
RESTRICTIONS. Software is confidential and copyrighted. Title to Software and all associated intellectual property rights is retained by Oracle and/or its licensors. Unless enforcement is prohibited by applicable law, you may not modify, decompile, or reverse engineer Software.
Click to expand...
http://www.java.com/en/download/license.jsp

We know that the license has been changed a while back which sparked a myriad of forks, most of which failed, but of all these forks Android and Google made the best use of this. So what then is going to happen to the other OSS java forks?

Industry pessimist see this as an open attack against FOSS and they are now bracing themselves for the inevitable "pulling of the plug" on all of SUN's OSS projects.
Do they have a reason to fear and doubt?
OpenSolaris? Shut down.
Java? This case will determine whether Java is still a safe open platform.
What about OpenOffice, mySQL?

Here is an interesting article on this and other thoughts we should really consider as FOSS community. I'm not against big companies acquiring FOSS projects, we just need to protect the OSS license of the projects better, much, much better...
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/oracle-aims-to-destroy-open-source-software-industry/7172
 
ponder

ponder

Honorary Master
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
92,823
I saw this coming when the rumours of the buyout started. I wonder what they are going to do with MySQL?

Either way, I don't think they have a leg to stand on. If you open source code and someone forks that code it's all fine, the new 'owner' can also change the license for new versions but cannot apply that license retroactively.

I hope the court shows them a toffee ;)
 
K

koffiejunkie

Executive Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
9,588
I remember the same scaremongering en FUD flowing freely when Sun bought MySQL. And when Oracle bought InnoBase. As it happens, neither event had much effect on MySQL. I'm not really following what's going on in the Java world, so I won't comment on that. But from a MySQL perspective I don't see anything changing. Oracle would be stupid to mess too much with MySQL.

What worries me more is that Oracle's hopeless security record and stupidly slow patch cycle might trickle down to MySQL. And whatever Facebook is up to. :eek:
 
B

bleh69

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2009
Messages
539
Oracle's hopeless security record and stupidly slow patch cycle
Click to expand...

you have no idea.

anyway... they buy the company that is acting custodian of LOTS of code released BY OTHERS under the GPL, and then they claim it as theirs. they are going to get ****ed up. and google might look all bubbly and friendly, but they will unleash the biggest ****storm oracle has ever seen, and then paint over the remaining splotch with AdSense.
 
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