Google is facing a major backlash from the Android community after sending a cease-and-desist order to the independent developer behind a popular Android mod. The controversy reflects some of the licensing challenges that are raised by mobile platforms that incorporate both open and proprietary components. It also illuminates yet another weak point in Google's commitment to delivering a truly inclusive and open platform.

Developer Steve Kondik, known by his handle Cyanogen, is an independent Android hacker who builds custom ROM images that users can install on their Android-powered handsets. His customizations are well-liked and bring significant improvements to the platform. A growing number of Android enthusiasts contend that the stock platform doesn't live up to expectations and that the custom ROM, particularly its performance optimizations, are essential to having a quality Android user experience. The problem, however, is that the custom ROM ships with Google's proprietary software components, such as the Android Market and Maps applications.

Third-party developers do not have a license to distribute these components and consequently cannot include them in custom ROMs without committing copyright infringement. Licensing issues of this nature have always cast a shadow over ROM hacking, but major mobile platform vendors have generally been willing to look the other way because the practice is mostly harmless, largely beneficial to advanced users, and would be very difficult to stop. Among Windows Mobile enthusiasts, for example, use of "cooked" ROMs is almost ubiquitous and a number of popular forums have emerged across the Internet to provide users and practitioners with a means of collaborating and distributing the custom ROMs.

Google, however, appears to be significantly less permissive on this front than Microsoft. The company's legal department objects to the Cyanogen mod on the basis of its inclusion of Google's proprietary software. They sent Kondik a cease and desist order compelling him to remove the mod from his Web site. The Android enthusiast community has responded fiercely, condemning Google for taking a heavy-handed approach. Even Google's own Android team appears to be frustrated with the legal department's zeal. After the news about the cease and desist broke, Google developer Jean-Baptiste Queru posted a message on Twitter suggesting that he could be pursuing alternate employment opportunities.

Kondik expressed disgust with the entire situation, but has been working with Google to find a reasonable resolution. He remains optimistic that he can accommodate Google's requirements and still make his mod available to users. In a blog entry posted Sunday, he explained how he plans to move forward. The Cyanogen mod will no longer include Google's proprietary applications. Instead, users who have "Google Experience" phones will back up those applications to external media and will restore them after installing the modded ROM. He is building a special tool to facilitate the backup and restoration process.

"There are lots of things we can do as end-users and modders, though, without violating anyones rights. Most importantly, we are entitled to back up our software. Since I don't work with any of these closed source applications directly, what I intend to do is simply ship the next version of CyanogenMod as a 'bare bones' ROM," he wrote. "You'll be able to make calls, MMS, take photos, etc. In order to get our beloved Google sync and applications back, you'll need to make a backup first. I'm working on an application that will do this for you."

The long-term solution, however, will be to replace Google's proprietary applications with open source alternatives. Queru launched a discussion on Google's Android platform mailing list about the possibility of expanding the scope of the Android open source project and eventually using it as the basis for building an entirely open Android stack. There is also a separate initiative called the Open Android Alliance which is specifically focusing on building open source equivalents for Google's applications.

Both of these efforts appear to be constructive and nonconfrontational attempts to make the Android platform better and more open. Google engineers are actively participating in the discussion and are generally supportive of the goals.

Google's relationship with the Android development community has been on shaky ground since the start. Prior to the initial launch of the G1, the project had a closed development process and the company showed very little regard for the third-party developer community. The situation improved when Google released the source code following the launch of the G1, but some friction has remained. The problem is that Android has fallen short of Google's original commitment to a fully open platform and open devices on which users would be able to run anything.

Google's public response to the Cyanogen controversy, posted in the Android developers blog, was somewhat disappointing. After several paragraphs of self-congratulatory rhetoric about the openness of the platform, Google's Dan Morrill nebulously declared that "unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business." He doesn't say how third-party distribution of the software is harmful to Google or why it's under a proprietary license to begin with in light of the company's promise of an open platform.

Google is certainly entitled to protect its legal rights and has done exactly that throughout the course of the Cyanogen controversy. The unfortunate aspect of this incident is that it further demonstrates Google's unwavering apathy towards the community of third-party developers who are working to make the company's platform better. Android had the opportunity to be the open answer to Apple's walled garden, but instead it's just a walled garden with a lower wall.