If the court ended up forcing Google to sell Android, shouldn’t we worry that its license as an open source project could be removed and then it become proprietary?
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You should worry about that in any case. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time now.
Any part that is already open source will eternally be open source. Furthermore, there are rules about using open source code in projects that requires them to also be open source.
This is entirely untrue.
Any part that is already open source will eternally be open source.
Only in the state that it is right now. Google could at any point simply stop releasing the source code with no warning and make all further modifications proprietary.
there are rules about using open source code in projects that requires them to also be open source.
That is only true for copyleft licenses. Licenses that are merely “open source” (also called “permissive”) such as the Apache License 2.0 which the AOSP is licensed under do not give two hoots about what you do with the code as long as you give appropriate credit.
The only part of Android that has a copyleft license is the Linux kernel (GPLv2) and I wouldn’t really consider it part of the AOSP in practice.
It’s not entirely untrue. You did however add some relevant details. Thank you for making this more precise.
The point is: Android phone owners would still be fine if Google went full-proprietary at some point. A majority of the code would/could be forked and maintained.
Or a project like GrapheneOS that’s already based on Android code would be expanded to fill the void.
A majority of the code would/could be forked and maintained.
What makes you think that? If you’ve ever taken a look at the AOSP source code, you’ll know that it’s insanely huge. This isn’t something a small community of volunteers can reasonably maintain; just like a web browser.
Or a project like GrapheneOS that’s already based on Android code would be expanded to fill the void.
Again, who do you expect to take on that insane task?
GrapheneOS is regular-ass android with some modifications to make it more secure on top. It’s not “based on Android” it is (mostly) Android. It does some important modifications but that’s details, not basic functionality.
If Google were to cut updates to Android, GrapheneOS would (rightly) make a stink but ultimately have to cease because they cannot maintain the entire rest of the Android code to keep it secure. I suspect they’d rather (loudly) end the project than keep limping along without proper security patches.Again, your specificity is appreciated.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me Android devices are too important to just let them be abandoned if Google goes full-proprietary. It wouldn’t just be volunteers. Many companies have a huge stake in this OS and would continue to contribute.
i think it would probably go the other way. google has closed down so much of the android core system that they would probably respond to the court by opening those parts back up.
Google is only going to “respond” by doing things it’s explicitly ordered to comply with and of course extremely reluctantly; only doing the bare minimum that could be seen as complying.
They sure as hell aren’t going to open up the google surveillance services unless explicitly and specifically forced to do so by a court.
yeah but if they’re forced to part with them they may believe it better for their market position to strip all the secret stuff out and just disown the rest.
