"Another problem -- and this leads us to the Lutris
case -- is that Sun has taken the position that any licensee of the
J2EE specification is privy to Sun's intellectual property, and
can't legally release an open source implementation. (In
particular, they have told Lutris that they may not apply an open
source license to their Enhydra J2EE platform.)
I'm at a loss for what to say here. Sun certainly has the right
to interpret their licenses any way they want or to make up any
licenses they want. This move, however, strikes me as extraordinary
bad faith -- and just plain stupid. Sun desperately needs the
cooperation of the open source community. Telling developers that
they cannot release open source implementations if they have seen
the J2EE spec is certainly not going to earn Sun any friends. I
can't think of any better way for Sun to destroy what it has
accomplished with Java over the past few years.
When Sun first announced its Community Source License (SCSL), I
thought it was an interesting approach to bridging the gap between
open source and commercial software developers. It appears,
however, that Sun wants the appearance of openness without the
substance. They have the right to take that posture, but it's
ultimately destructive."
