Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Nov 12, 2007 20:10 UTC (Mon) by mjw (subscriber, #16740)
Parent article: Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet)

Except that it seems most of the code release is just under the GPL, like the kernel, and the
other part is under some binary only, proprietary license that has some really strange
restrictions. See http://code.google.com/android/terms.html and the analysis by Dalibor Topic:
http://robilad.livejournal.com/22312.html

Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Nov 13, 2007 3:22 UTC (Tue) by bradfitz (subscriber, #4378) [Link] (9 responses)

Note this section in the license:

"Until the SDK is released under an open source license, "

This is a preview SDK, not the open sourced version.

Maybe someday "mostly" free

Posted Nov 13, 2007 9:59 UTC (Tue) by mjr (guest, #6979) [Link] (8 responses)

Note the "most" language. If they're only just planning to free "most" of the code, it would seem to follow that they're planning not to free some of the platform.

This is why we need OpenMoko, even if its life just got a bit more difficult still.

It's much worse than that

Posted Nov 13, 2007 19:09 UTC (Tue) by robilad (guest, #27163) [Link] (4 responses)

What I find the worst part of the license is that Google reserves the right to revoke the
license to use Android for anything from their competitors, if those competitors don't make
Google money, or hurt Google financially. 

So, in practice, Android is only as open as it is in Google's exclusive business interest to
allow 'openness'.

Not even Microsoft went that far in their EULAs. Google is reserving for itself the right to
crush any competition around Android. That would be like Microsoft reserving the right to
declare Firefox illegal on Windows, if it starts taking away market share from them.

It is most curious that those that Google would explicitly reserve that right for itself in
the license.

It's much worse than that

Posted Nov 14, 2007 3:30 UTC (Wed) by sepreece (guest, #19270) [Link] (3 responses)

"Google reserves the right to revoke" 

Again, I think you're jumping to the worst-possible interpretation of this clause. I read that
as lawyers saying "This is a pre-release thing. It's possible we'll decide not to create a
real product based on it, if it turns out not to be economically viable. If so, you can't sue
us for any money you might have spent developing products on it."

I don't think you can read much of anything into the terms of a preview release - they're
giving you a chance to play with it and comment on it, but it's not the product, it's not even
a product, and it's not unreasonable that the terms covering the preview release would be
tailored to the fact that it's not a product.

[NOTE: I have no connection to Google and no specific insight into their motivation, though I
do have a tendency to assume the best about people and corporations until proven otherwise...]

It's much worse than that

Posted Nov 14, 2007 14:39 UTC (Wed) by robilad (guest, #27163) [Link] (2 responses)

It's not a regular clause in EULAs. It's not there by come copy-paste mistake by Google's
lawyers. It has been deliberately crafted, weighed, and put in there to give Google exclusive
control over 'open' platform.

You don't introduce a gun in the first act, if you don't intend to use it in the third. If
Google intended to play fair, it wouldn't need such terms.

It's much worse than that

Posted Nov 14, 2007 17:41 UTC (Wed) by sepreece (guest, #19270) [Link]

Again, it's a pre-release, explicitly under different license terms than the eventual SDK and
platform. This particular clause appears to be specific to the pre-release; my own guess would
be that it won't be in the eventual license, but my guess has no more significance than anyone
elses...

It's much worse than that

Posted Nov 15, 2007 3:00 UTC (Thu) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link]

Actually lawyers do introduce 'guns in the first act without using them in the third act' the
time.. its one of the problems with real life versus fiction.

Maybe someday "mostly" free

Posted Nov 14, 2007 3:24 UTC (Wed) by sepreece (guest, #19270) [Link] (2 responses)

"Note the "most" language."

Um - the "most" language in the license says that most of the software will be released under
the Apache license. My assumption was that it says "most" because there are also components
(like the Linux kernel) that will be under the GPL (and possibly other open-source licenses).

Maybe someday "mostly" free

Posted Nov 14, 2007 10:49 UTC (Wed) by mjr (guest, #6979) [Link] (1 responses)

Um - the "most" language in the license says that most of the software will be released under the Apache license.

You're missing pretty much all of the relevant context. This is all in the license agreement of the proprietary SDK, not a full system. In fact it says quite clearly that most of the SDK will be (or rather, is intended to be) released under AL. The Linux kernel et al is quite apart from that.

Maybe someday "mostly" free

Posted Nov 14, 2007 17:37 UTC (Wed) by sepreece (guest, #19270) [Link]

Sorry, I missed that - yes, the statement is just about the SDK, which presumably doesn't
include Linux.

However, I still don't see any particular reason to assume evil intentions. The SDK is not the
platform - the SDK can include non-open components without affecting the openness of the APIs,
frameworks, and components of the platform. I haven't sorted through the SDK enough, yet, to
have an opinion on that.