When the Sun goes down - what happens to the OpenJDK?

[Volker Simonis]

Now that the Sundown is getting closer, I would like to start a
discussion about various formal and legal aspects of the OpenJDK
project. In the past years, since Sun has open sourced its Java SE
reference implementation under the GPL, formal, legal and
organisational aspects have always been somehow "pushed aside" with
the argument that establishing a running infrastructure and a vibrant
community has precedence.

This has manifested itself in various shortcomings in the legal and
organisation status of the project:

- the Interim Governance Board which was initially created on Tuesday,
8 May 2007 had the duty to create a OpenJDK constitution, organize
elections for a permanent Governance Board and dissolve itself not
later than the 7 of May 2008.
- after one year, none of the objectives were achieved so the Interim
Governance Board decided to take another year time. It will now be
dissolved on 7 May 2009.
- after some changes in the Interim Governance Board the GB decided to
extend itself from 5 to 7 members, however since this decision,
nothing has happend.
- the last available minutes from a GB meeting are dated from the 10th
of April 2008
- applying for the "OpenJDK Community TCK License" is still obscure:
one has to sign the SCA in order to be eligible but nevertheless Sun
still reserves one's rights to decide to whom the license is granted.

These shortcomings have always been hidden by Sun's apparent will to
act in a "fair" and "reasonable" way. The community has honoured this
and has finally believed Sun to "not be evil" (although this is
another company's slogan:)

But if Sun will be taken over by another company (whoever this company
may be), the question arises how this new company will act with
respect to the OpenJDK project. Some of the questions are:

- what about the signed "Sun Contributor Agreements" - will they still
be valid (ICA, OCA, HPCA, ... :)?
- getting an "OpenJDK Community TCK License" is already a complicated
and nontransparent process where Sun reserve one's rights to finally
decide to whom to grant such a license. How will this be handled in
the future?
- will there be a OpenJDK Community TCK License for forthcoming Java versions?
- what will happen to the "Interim Governance Board" and the "OpenJDK
constitution" after the 7th of May 2009?

Probably nobody will be able to answer these questions now and exactly
therefore I think that it is crucial for the future of the OpenJDK to
base the project on a more solid ground. One of the most important
aspects in my opinion is to somehow grant OpenJDK implementers a
permanent and irrevocable right to use current AND future TCKs in
order to certify their OpenJDK implementations as "Java compatible"!

What are your opinions and concerns?

Regards,
Volker