“Sun Microsystems Inc. has until December 1 to inform ECMA
whether it wants to continue working with ECMA to standardize Java.
ECMA is an international industry association based in Europe and
is Sun’s current route for making Java an international
standard.”
“However, Sun is withholding its 8400-page Java specification
from ECMA because ECMA will not allow Sun to maintain its copyright
through the standards process. Sun has accused Microsoft, an ECMA
member, of violating Sun’s copyright in U.S. District Court, and is
hoping for reinstatement of a preliminary injunction against
Microsoft based on that accusation. Sun General Counsel Mike Morris
said he expects U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte to rule on the
injunction, which would require Microsoft products to comply with
Sun’s Java, by the end of the month….”
“Microsoft officials vowed to submit “improvements” to Java
when ECMA took over the Java standards work but declined to be
interviewed.“