OpenJDK projects promoting proprietary builds

[Geir Magnusson Jr.]

On May 29, 2009, at 12:56 PM, Mark Wielaard wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Since we are all in frantic-release mode just before JavaOne I  
> wanted to
> double check some of the new features against other builds. I was
> somewhat surprised to find that various projects only promote and/or
> publish proprietary builds. The jdk7 binaries published on the list,  
> but
> also nio2 builds, sctp builds (these were the two I was interested in,
> there might be others), are published under proprietary terms and not
> just under the GPL.
>
>
> The terms are particularly anti-social since they explicitly forbid
> sharing the binaries with others, learning what the corresponding  
> source
> code is, modifying or creating any derivative works, and agreeing that
> Sun will be "irreparably harmed" if you don't keep everything you  
> learn
> from those binaries confidential.

Imagine!  There's a downside for giving sun complete copyright (via  
joint assignment)!  Whoda thought!

geir

>
>
> Could we please have OpenJDK projects only publish artifacts under the
> terms listed at http://openjdk.java.net/legal/
>
> Those terms even allows publishing binaries that contain some of the
> proprietary blobs as long as the rest is published under the GPL,  
> thanks
> to the assembly exception, if that really is necessary (and it really
> shouldn't be necessary anymore since people have been publishing full
> GPLed builds for almost 2 years now).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark
>