Apache Software Foundation Leaves JCP

Following a dispute over TCK licensing for the Apache Harmony project, ASF has quit the JCP. ASF explains their move here.

In the phrase “fail to uphold their responsibilities under the JSPA”, we are referring to Oracle’s refusal to provide the ASF’s Harmony project with a TCK license for Java SE that complies with Oracle’s obligations under the JSPA as well as public promises made to the Java community by officers of Sun Microsystems (recently acquired by Oracle.)  This breach of the JSPA was begun by Sun Microsystems in August of 2006 and is a policy that Oracle explicitly continues today.  For more information on this dispute, see our open letter to Sun Microsystems.

Further, they provide some strong conclusive remarks:

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.

It is a real shame they are leaving, as they have contributed significantly to the Java Ecosystem. This departure follow recent ones from Doug Lea and Tim Peierls who voted against Java SE JSRs. Looks like Java is going to have an interesting future ahead.