Sun backs off Open Java Plan

Josh Baugher wrote a line to point us over to this Wired article. Sun has backed off the original plan to have Java submitted as an open standard to the Internation Standards Organization. Sun and the ISO have been arguing over things, because the ISO is a bit less then happy with having one company retain control of the technology.

Comments

ISO changed PAS rules...

[Dawn Keyhotie]

Microsoft couldn't kill Sun's ISO application outright, but they did have enough leverage to get the ISO committee to change the rules that apply to Publicly Available Specification submitter, or PAS, organizations. Initially, ISO created the PAS program so that hot new technology could be quickly standardized and submitted to ISO by the creator of the technology, instead of by the decades of committee wrangling that normally accompanies an international standardization effort. Witness C, C++, Fortran, etc. As a PAS participant, a company would drive the development of the new standard, with oversight and approval of the ISO subcommittee for that standard. While others would be free to implement their own compatible version of the PAS initiated standard, only the PAS submitter would be able to initiate changes in the standard, with the committee's approval of course.

Microsoft applied pressure behind the scenes and got ISO to change the rules for PAS submitters so that once the technology had been submitted and approved, all control would be handed over to the ISO subcommittee. Sun, of course, has said from the beginning that they would always maintain control of Java(TM) and would vigorously defend it against all who would try to wrest control from them. As indeed they have.

And now that ISO has changed the PAS rules to force Sun to either relinquish control of Java(TM), or drop the ISO standardization effort, Sun has chosen the path that is consistent with their stated goals of retaining control of the evolution of Java(TM), one of the most important new technologies of the Internet era. Bye bye, ISO.

I agree with Sun's position, especially in light of the fact that the rules were changed out from under them in a sneaky back-room deal.

Java(TM) will continue to evolve. Sun does need to a better job of public relations, and to help more people implement Java(TM) for their platforms of choice. While I agree that a GPL'd implementation would be best, I don't expect Sun to just throw in the towel and give up its control. They are way too 'corporate' for that. From a Sun shareholders perspective, that would be the equivalent of flushing money down the tubes. And lots of it.

Re:HA! This is funny. . .

[Eric_Scheirer]

There's a difference between allowing a single company to control the standard and allowing patents into the standard. Contrary to popular opinion, Fraunhofer is not the only patent-holder on MP3 technology -- they participated in the MPEG process with a number of other companies. They have just been the most aggressive in pursuing infringers. And FhG doesn't control the *direction* of the standard -- only MPEG does that, and it's according to MPEG's normal working rules.

The situation was much different with Java. Sun wanted simultaneously to have Java be an International Standard, but also reserve the right to make unilateral changes to the technology if they decided that it was in their interest to do so.

The difference is clear for MP3 -- no individual company controls the MP3 standard; if revisions need to be made, this is decided by MPEG as a whole, not by Fraunhofer or any other individual company. Sun could not accept letting the other ISO members share in the role of deciding the progression of Java. This is their right, as they own the Java technology, but then the technology can't be an International Standard.

-- Eric Scheirer
Editor, ISO 14496-3 (MPEG-4 Audio)