02 November 2010, 11:35

Apache: Google's Java code not from us

Oracle Android The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) says that the Java code allegedly copied by Google did not come from within Apache. In a patent dispute with Google, Oracle upped the ante and declared that Android not only violates patents, but also copyright because it contains code from Oracle's Java sources. Oracle provides the source text of the Android class PolicyNodeImplwith comments removed in a comparison with the version from Sun to prove its point.

If you take a look at the complete code of the Android version, you reportedly stumble across the copyright and the package name, both of which appear to indicate that the Apache Software Foundation is the source. Now, Apache has explained that the class in question is not from its Harmony project, a free Java implementation. In a current checkout of Harmony, there is indeed no file of that name to be found. However, the free OpenJDK does contain a class named PolicyNodeImpl under the GPLv2 (GNU General Public License) which contains largely the same code as the Google and Oracle version.

(crve)

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