SoylentNews

mendax [soylentnews.org] writes:

El Reg is reporting [theregister.co.uk] that Google has finally decided to dump its port of Apache Harmony, the now-defunct cleanroom implementation of Java, for Oracle's OpenJDK. As the article points out:

This move allows Google to bring in new Java 8 features, such as lambda expressions, which OpenJDK supports, and pass the benefits to app programmers. Google has previously contributed to OpenJDK.

So what effect does this move have on Oracle's longstanding battle with Google over alleged copyright infringement (or lack thereof) over Java APIs?

... Oracle bought Sun Microsystems in 2010, taking ownership of Java in the process. Oracle then sued Google for allegedly breaching copyright law by using Java language APIs in Android. That legal battle is still rumbling on, and has yet to be settled. Now here's a bombshell: OpenJDK is developed by Oracle. By moving to OpenJDK, Google is still using the APIs that Oracle threw a fit over – it's just now, amusingly, using Oracle's GNU GPL licensed code.

It seems like Google should have done this long ago.

Original Submission