Terrence (and his team?) was kind enough to spend some time clarifying the
concerns related to Java ME and the new GPL licensing model… read
Interpreting Java under GPL — does it force applications to be GPL as well?

Awesome. Terrence's answer is what I was expecting/hoping to get – but it was important to get this clarified…

You can read the Mobile & Embedded Community Interest forum (KVM-INTEREST) thread on this topic.

Thanks Terrence…

ceo

– – – – – – – – – 

Enrique,

OK, so let me try and clarify this:

Sun chose GPLv2 without classpath exception for Java ME
because the method of bundling and distributing applications
together with platform implementation code (which is practiced
in the Java SE space) does not apply to Java ME.

We would like to make it absolutely clear that it is our intent
to encourage Java ME developers to freely innovate within the
application space. However, we understand that because of the
different possible interpretations of the copyleft properties
of GPL it is important for Java ME developers to know where Sun
stands in this particular respect.

We believe that any Java ME code which is independent of the
Java ME platform implementation and is distributed separately
from the Java ME platform implementation and merely uses the
functionality of the platform but does not extend or modify the
platform should not be considered a derivative or combined work
of the platform and as such is not impacted by the platform license.

In particular, you should be able to do the following without your
code being considered a derivative or combined work of the platform
implementation:

1. calling of public APIs in the platform

2. implementing interfaces which are part of a public specification
   of the platform

3. accessing and extending classes which are part of a public
   specification of the platform as long as your code does not
   extend or modify the Java ME platform in a general way

Note that integrating your code into the Java ME platform
implementation or installing your code into the device together
with the platform implementation at the time of manufacturing
of the device may trigger the copyleft properties of the GPL.
In such cases it is recommended to contact Sun directly for more
information.

Please let me know if this answers your concerns.

Thanks,

-- Terrence

Terrence Barr
Evangelist, Java Mobile & Embedded Community
Sun Microsystems, Germany
www.mobileandembedded.org
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