Google’s attorneys are quickly preparing a response to a suit filed by Oracle claiming that Google’s Android operating system for smartphones and other devices illegally uses ideas and code from Java.

Steve Lohr reports, in his recent New York Times article, that while “open source” software once represented a “communal idealism”, it has become a weapon in corporate warfare.

Sun Microsystems developed Java and the associated tools in 1995. Oracle bought Sun in January. The initial response from Google’s general counsel was that Oracle is “trying to put the genie back in the bottle”.

“It’s not so much good companies and bad companies in this kind of situation,” said Mr. Lea, a member of the executive committee of the Java Community Process, a group that defines Java features and standards. “These companies compete viciously and have different interests. And in this case, you have two corporations that champion different forms of open source.”

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