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Court papers show how firms get early access to Android
COURT PAPERS have emerged showing how Google gives some companies early access to its Android mobile operating system versions.
The documents show an internal discussion about how to make the most of Android, saying why it lets companies that keep to Google's specifications put devices on sale first.
The court papers, seen by copyright and patent gadfly Florian Mueller were filed in US District Court as part of Google's defence in its legal battle with Oracle over some of the code in Android.
One of the excerpts talks about the value of granting early access to partners who go with Google's specifications when building and marketing devices.
Mueller said the mention of early access suggests that Google has "stated commitment to a non-level playing field".
Google made a bid to buy Motorola's mobile unit in August. µ
Tags: Software
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Customers who get binaries of GPL’d software with the devices they buy are also entitled to the source code.
Try reading the licence and/or the FAQ. Google only has to make the sources available to the people they've given the binaries to. If Google only gave them some binary stuff and told them that they couldn't have the GPL-licensed sources, then they'd be violating the licence. But I imagine that the partners all got the source code.
Doesn't this mean that Google have been breaking the conditions of the Gnu public license? A cursory glance at the Copyleft section of Wikipedia's page on GPL suggests that:
"One is allowed to make private modified versions, without any obligation to divulge the modifications as long as the modified software is not distributed to anyone else."
Giving Google's close buddies an early glance counts as distribution of a sorts doesn't it? Anyone care to take them on in court?