Well this is what google says in their corporate philosophy but I seriously doubting this.<\/p>\n
If you are not aware of the most recent cuffle about google, let explain and perhaps rant a little.<\/p>\n
Google; in an attempt to prevent the spread of the gpl-2 license from the linux kernel on the android platform to user’s application decided to clean the kernel headers of it so it can be used in the bionic libc.<\/p>\n
My understanding of the gpl-2 license is that once you have applied the license to your code, you are free to change it, include it and attribute your changes but the gpl-2 remains, so I can not see how they can clean the code of the license when the license itself prohibits it.<\/p>\n
Cleaning up the linux headers files does not seem such a big deal at first especially given the linux chaps have the own sanitised version themselves but it really does open it a huge whole in the open source arena. If you can remove the gpl-2 from the linux headers which contain macro’s aka inline code then why can’t you do the same for other gpl-2 software and release it or use it anyway you wish. After all if google can do it without doing any evil… why can’t anyone else do the same?<\/p>\n
Is this the end of gpl-2 or just the start of new legal battle with the do no evil company being covered the brown stuff.<\/p>\n
So what should google to next…
\n – standup and say “sorry” and “we will fix it”
\n – move bionic libc to the proper sanitized headers
\n – reissue a firmware that mitigates issue
\n – put some more love in the open source arena and stop taking evil shortcuts<\/p>\n
Anyway rant over… lets see what happens next…<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.brownrudnick.com\/nr\/pdf\/alerts\/Brown%20Rudnick%20Advisory%20The%20Bionic%20Library-Did%20Google%20Work%20Around%20The%20GPL.pdf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well this is what google says in their corporate philosophy but I seriously doubting this. If you are not aware of the most recent cuffle about google, let explain and perhaps rant a little. Google; in an attempt to prevent … Continue reading