Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 12th May 2011 21:40 UTC
Legal Nilay Patel has read through the 750 pages of legal filings in the Skyhook v. Google case we have also reported on extensively, and it's one damn fine piece of work. An absolute must-read, with detailed timelines of how Google uses compatibility to push Android device makers into a certain direction. "So what does all this mean? At the very least, it's now extremely clear that Google plays a major role in Android device development, to the point where Andy Rubin himself approves and denies requests from OEMs. It's also clear that Google places tremendous value on collecting location data, and it acted swiftly when it determined Skyhook's deal with Motorola might threaten its ability to collect that data."
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RE: Please let them do so
by Praxis on Fri 13th May 2011 17:01 UTC in reply to "Please let them do so"
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Let's face it people, Google's decision to GPL Android was a mistake, because every OEM did whatever he wanted with Android, and didn't had to report to Google. Now Android is closed source. It's not "free" anymore, but at least consumers will win.

Your post makes no sense.

Android is not GPL, in fact GPL could have avoided some of these problems. If OEMs had to make their android changes public, as required by GPL, fragmentation becomes less a concern since differentiation become pretty much impossible since everyone can read and copy your code. This is probably why OEM would never have got on board with a GPL Android.

Android is still open sourse, an Apache license which does not requite much of contributors or themselves. They make up for the weakness of this license with contracts in others for things like market access.That is where they control android.

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