The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is in a difficult position. The nonprofit organization can't certify that its open source Java runtime implementation—called Harmony—is compatible with Java standards because Oracle has refused to make the necessary test suites available under a suitable license. Oracle's decision to block Apache's Harmony project from being recognized as standards-compliant falls afoul of the rules that govern Java standardization and has raised serious questions about the openness of the programming language.

The non-profit ASF intends to fight back by using its seat in the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee to vote against the approval of Java 7, the next major version of the programming language. The ASF is calling for other concerned Java stakeholders to cast a similar nay vote to protest Oracle's breach of protocol. If the majority sides with the ASF, it would serve as a vote of no confidence in the JCP and Oracle's stewardship of the Java language.

The conflict over Harmony predates Oracle's acquisition of Sun. Oracle has continued to support Sun's position on the matter following the acquisition despite having previously spoken in favor of Apache's position in the past. The heart of the issue is the licensing terms under which the Java Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) is distributed. The TCK—which is needed to demonstrate a Java implementation's conformance with the language standard—is encumbered by field-of-use restrictions that are fundamentally hostile to open source Java implementors.

The TCK licensing restrictions violate the terms of a JCP governance policy, which specifies that all compatibility tests would be made available under terms that are conducive to third-party, open source Java implementations. It is believed that Oracle's disregard for this policy constitutes a potentially actionable breach of contract. The ASF is threatening to abandon the JCP if Oracle doesn't resolve the issue by supplying the TCK under suitable terms. If the ASF were to walk away from the JCP under such conditions, it would end the pretense that Java is an open language.

"Oracle is violating their contractual obligation as set forth under the rules of the JCP by only offering a TCK license that imposes additional terms and conditions that are not compatible with open source or Free software licenses," the ASF declared in a statement. "The ASF will terminate its relationship with the JCP if our rights as implementers of Java specifications are not upheld by the JCP Executive Committee to the limits of the EC's ability. The lack of active, strong and clear enforcement of those rights implies that the JSPA agreements are worthless, confirming that JCP specifications are nothing more than proprietary documentation."

Oracle's hostility to open governance is rapidly eroding the company's relationship with the people involved a number of the open source software projects that it obtained when it acquired Sun. A large segment of OpenOffice.org developers have forked the open source office suite and groups of independent stakeholders have emerged to support various MySQL forks and replacements, such as MariaDB.

Listing image by Original photo by Andreas Kollegger