Ubuntu disabling the Sun Java JDK browser plugin

Posted Dec 18, 2011 11:58 UTC (Sun) by tkiss80 (guest, #81876)
In reply to: Ubuntu disabling the Sun Java JDK browser plugin by geuder
Parent article: Ubuntu disabling the Sun Java JDK browser plugin

I totally understand your problem, but for the "inter-company legal nonsense, which I wouldn't care about" part I'd like to add the following:

Imagine you have a neighbour who has a contract with a chocolate factory: he gets the chocolate for free, in order to distribute it (e.g. for marketing purposes, it's irrelevant in this example). You get as many as you want from him, and you can be sure it's always fresh and properly packaged (your neighbour takes care of it). What happens when the chocolate factory eliminates the contract? Do you expect your neighbour to steal the chocolate so he can continue distributing? Do you think if you knock harder on his door he will be able to give you chocolate?

Ubuntu disabling the Sun Java JDK browser plugin

Posted Dec 27, 2011 17:14 UTC (Tue) by steffen780 (guest, #68142) [Link]

This analogy is completely wrong. Key points:
- Physical objects are not AT ALL the same as thoughts/ideas such as software
- Copying software is not the same as stealing an object, since copying doesn't take away the original, whilst stealing an object does.
- Oracle hasn't stopped giving away their JRE, you can still download it free-as-in-free-beer. They're just being assholes to free software for no recognisable purpose, as they do so often.
- The post you replied to never said anything about kicking Ubuntu to get OracleJRE inspite of this being technically illegal - it talked about kicking them to try to track down and fix the bug in OpenJDK