
Google Issues Cease & Desist to Open Source Android Developer - linuxmag
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7544
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phsr
Its worth noting that Cyanogen has changed his work to comply with Google:
[http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/29/cyanogen-android-rom-
modd...](http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/29/cyanogen-android-rom-modder-bends-
to-googles-will-but-does-not/)

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dustingetz
Of course he did. He did roughly the moral equivalent of redistributing MP3s,
Google told him to knock it off, he did.

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eldenbishop
Not even close. This is the moral equivalent of putting a new muffler on your
Honda. He is tweaking apps he purchased (all android phone owners have such a
license) and distributing those tweaks to people who also have licenses for
those apps. You have clearly drunk the kool-aid.

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jcl
There are devices that do not ship with Android but can run it, like the
OpenMoko Freerunner and numerous netbooks. So even if you assume that the
license somehow trumps copyright, he could easily have been giving away the
apps to people who are not licensed.

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callahad
The more I think about this, the more frustrated I get.

Google is completely in the right, legally, but the licensing issue means that
I have no way to legally exploit the open source nature of Android while
_also_ retaining crucially important applications, like the Android Market,
Google Maps, or GMail.

Which, for me, means that I can never truly use my Dev Phone for both
development, and as a phone. I have to choose between openness and proprietary
software that makes the phone usable as a general device.

Commercial developers, however, through their license agreements with Google,
are able to work with both of these components -- the open foundation and the
closed applications -- to produce a complete package. I can only provide half
of that.

Oh how I wish Google would make their applications otherwise available, as
they do for S60 and other platforms. I don't mind being prohibited from
redistribution, but give me a way to install those applications on my own.

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xilun
What is the relationship between copyright infringement and Open Source???

