Apache, Sun still can’t get along

The low-level feud between Sun Microsystems and the Apache Foundation had gone on for years. Apache has consistently maintained that Sun makes it difficult for Apache (and for other non-Sun open source projects) to deliver software that’s compatible with the Java Community Process’ specifications. In response, Sun has offered occasional olive branches (most notably in at 2002’s JavaOne conference), but they always seem to be too little, too late.

In the most recent flare-up, Apache’s Geir Magnusson Jr. (a long-time critic of Sun’s licensing policies) has written an open letter to Sun complaining that Apache’s Harmony project can’t be completed properly due to Sun’s license terms. Harmony is Apache’s open-source implementation of Java SE 5. Sun’s license for its Java Compatibility Kit contains fields-of-use terms that would impact anyone who used Harmony. If Apache can’t use the JCK, then Apache can’t demonstrate that Harmony is Java SE 5 compatible. (The picture is of Sun’s Onno Kluyt, left, giving an award to Geir at JavaOne 2005.)

In reviewing Sun’s terms for the JCK, it seems that Apache is 100% right. Sun’s license terms are needlessly restrictive. Sun should remove the “field of use” terms from the JCK.