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Google Copied Code Line-by-line?
“A woeful mischaracterization of the artful design of the Java package”
Java was created by the mighty Sun Microsystems. It could be run under licence, and so when Google created Android they used Java, but recreated their own run time environment. But, rather than getting Sun Microsystems to sign a licence agreement for this, they just went ahead and created Android. When Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, it could see the potential of suing Google for its now licenced usage of Java. And so first they tried a patent case, and lost, but then won over a non-signing of a licencing agreement. The US Supreme Court say they are now willing to take on an appeal related to copyright case, and it will provide a landmark ruling for the rest of the software industry.
So while large tech companies such as Microsoft and IBM are backing Google, Scott McNealy — the co-founder of Sun Microsystems and one of the most respected people in the computing industry — has stepped forward with his viewpoints, and they are fairly stinging towards Google’s copying of Java for their Android platform:
“woeful mischaracterization of the artful design of the Java packages”
“an insult to the hard-working developers at Sun who made Java such a success”.
He outlines that Google virtually copied — line for line — 37 Java packages for Android.
