intertwingly

It’s just data

Pyrrhic Victory


The Apache Software Foundation concludes that that JCP is not an open specification process - that Java specifications are proprietary technology that must be licensed directly from the spec lead under whatever terms the spec lead chooses; that the commercial concerns of a single entity, Oracle, will continue to seriously interfere with and bias the transparent governance of the ecosystem;  that it is impossible to distribute independent implementations of JSRs under open source licenses such that users are protected from IP litigation by expert group members or the spec lead; and finally, the EC is unwilling or unable to assert the basic power of their role in the JCP governance process.

Resignations to date: Doug Lea, Tim Peierls, Apache Software Foundation.

The flash point was the JSR 336 vote — read the comments.

Standards organizations come and go.  Whether this particular one limps along for two more years or twenty isn’t the key point.  Instead of being an exemplar, the JCP is destined to become the canonical antithesis of what a standards organization should be.  As standards organizations are created over the upcoming decades, people will be asking themselves how they can avoid becoming another JCP, i.e., merely a purchasable asset reported on quarterly in P&L statements.