It’s A Sad Day For The Android Community

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It’s A Sad Day For The Android Community

Posted by Tariq Bamadhaj on Sep 25, 2009

This post was published 2 years 7 months 27 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.

In what seemed to be a rather surprising move, Google has issued a Cease & Desist to the developer of the very famous CyanogenMod. Considering that the Android platform is an Open-Source platform, it is interesting to note why Google did what they did. In their own words:

Everyone knows that mobile is a big deal, but for a long time it was hard to be a mobile app developer. Competing interests and the slow pace of platform innovation made it hard to create innovative apps. For our part, Google offers a lot of services — such as Google Search, Google Maps, and so on — and we found delivering those services to users’ phones to be a very frustrating experience. But we also found that we weren’t alone, so we formed the Open Handset Alliance, a group of like-minded partners, and created Android to be the platform that we all wished we had. To encourage broad adoption, we arranged for Android to be open-source. Google also created and operates Android Market as a service for developers to distribute their apps to Android users. In other words, we created Android because the industry needed an injection of openness. Today, we’re thrilled to see all the enthusiasm that developers, users, and others in the mobile industry have shown toward Android.

With a high-quality open platform in hand, we then returned to our goal of making our services available on users’ phones. That’s why we developed Android apps for many of our services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Voice, and so on. These apps are Google’s way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself. We make some of these apps available to users of any Android-powered device via Android Market, and others are pre-installed on some phones through business deals. Either way, these apps aren’t open source, and that’s why they aren’t included in the Android source code repository. Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it’s done with the best of intentions.

via: Android Developers

For the curious, Cyanogen is famous for bringing better functionality to an already great platform. He unlocked hidden features such as multi-touch and improved user experience by providing 5 home screens instead of the usual 3. He even helped the memory-anemic G1 increase its shelf life by giving users the option to install their apps to SD card!

He even gave new life to the development community. Countless other developers have sourced his work to breathe new innovation into their own creations and making it more stable or functional or both. Theme developers gave birth to beautiful backgrounds and icons that you don’t usually see on the device. In short, if Google gave birth to Android, Cyanogen was the one who nurtured and continues to nurture this growing baby.

But now, it seems, that nurturing has come to a halt. Whether it is temporary or permanent, we’ll have to wait and see. Cyanogen, for his part, has decided to honor Google’s request and cease development of his ROM for the time being and try to work something out with them.

While Google has every right to protect their intellectual property, I can’t help but feel that such a move would only hurt it. I do hope that they Google. Cyanogen did no modifications to the Google Apps that were mentioned and Google Maps is available Free of Charge in the Android Market. If anything, it would help drive the Google brand just as the other free applications that Google has for other applications that can be so easily accessed by end-users.

We hope with bated breath for the ending that would please both sides and their users. What do you think of this situation? Was Cyanogen wrong to begin with or did Google take matters too far? Hit us up in the comments below.

All pictures are copyrights of their respective owners.

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JJ

A team of PAID Google developers can't program a device capable of DELETING E-MAILS from your GMail inbox or having a 'birthday field' in your contacts… and they are worried about Cyanogen? Friggin hilarious!
Matt

Thanks Google, I guess you're a lot more like Apple then I had thought. Might as well just get an iPhone. It's certainly a hell of a lot more functional than a Gphone with the non-modded Android OS.
Name

My first and eagerly awaited android phone, the HTC Dream/G1 will and most likely be, the last android phone I will get here in Singapore… iPhone, SE Xperia don't look that bad at this point in time…
tect

Google has their to protect their applications, but since android is open source, google apps should be distribute via free gpl too, it is a way to extend the acceptance of google apps and android, forget about business deal, let people accept google's way is more important now
sdsc0rch

google FAIL
http://twitter.com/mobilitysite/status/4384578316 mobilitysite

It’s A Sad Day For The Android Community http://bit.ly/1UuwaY
Adam

Slowly but surely Google starts to behave as Apple, or similar companies, taking advantage of their position. If Android is open source, what is the problem??…or Android being open source is just a lie??…we don't expect Google to be a charity, and of course it has to take care of its financial & economic interests, but being caught with such practices as the Google Book deal, the problem with Google Voice calling to rural numbers, etc. etc. is reminiscent of the so hated practices as we where used from other giants, taking advantage of their pure size….I am sure that I will not buy an Android phone, and will start to look for competitive services in other areas….
http://twitter.com/billcpu/status/4389835619 Bill, CPU Media

Finding it hard to get worked up over the CyanogenMod spat http://yweb.com/79t
Name

The app market does not include some of these google applications (i.e. Gmail, Google Talk) so if they are not distributed with the modified rom the user will end up with a significantly inferior phone, practically defeating the reason for an alternate rom (and google can close the few remaining workaroud to get these apps).

So legal issues aside, it appears that Google is trying to control the market and the user experience in the very same way Apple does.

This opens the door for for Apple to go back to the FCC and say that they are not controlling the iPhone market more than Google does the Android app market. Google may have been penny wise and pound foolish. They thought they shot Cyanogen, buy may have shot themselves in the foot.
http://twitter.com/filos/status/4391250776 Luca Filigheddu

RT @TferThomas: It’s A Sad Day For The Android Community #google http://viigo.im/10aA
http://twitter.com/garotasemfio/status/4393134052 Bia Kunze

Android foi concebido em cima de Linux, mas ele não é open-source: http://bit.ly/KoEQ0
graybip

My G1 is the best phone I ever had because of Cyanogen's work. May he and google work out something that allows him to continue with his endeavors.
Name

Hopefully it will go like doom did and just take him on as a dev. BUT thats just a hope.
http://www.svpocketpc.com Pony99CA

Let's see if I have this right. Cyanogen is creating ROMs for Android phones (much like XDA Developers create ROMs for Windows Mobile phones, except Android is Open Source). In these ROMs, he's bundling some of Google's apps which are not Open Source.

Do I have that right?

Assuming I do, Google is perfectly within its rights. They hold the copyright for their apps and nobody has the right to distribute them without Google's permission.

You can argue that it's foolish of Google not to Open Source the apps, or that Google is shooting themselves in the foot, but that's not the point. Cyanogen is breaking the law, plain and simple. He needs to get permission for Google to redistribute the apps.

Counter-arguments sound just like music pirates claiming that “music should be free” or “they're not hurting anybody” when the simple truth is that only the copyright holder gets to determine how content can be legally distributed.

Steve
http://www.svpocketpc.com Pony99CA

Let's see if I have this right. Cyanogen is creating ROMs for Android phones (much like XDA Developers create ROMs for Windows Mobile phones, except Android is Open Source). In these ROMs, he's bundling some of Google's apps which are not Open Source.

Do I have that right?

Assuming I do, Google is perfectly within its rights. They hold the copyright for their apps and nobody has the right to distribute them without Google's permission.

You can argue that it's foolish of Google not to Open Source the apps, or that Google is shooting themselves in the foot, but that's not the point. Cyanogen is breaking the law, plain and simple. He needs to get permission for Google to redistribute the apps.

Counter-arguments sound just like music pirates claiming that “music should be free” or “they're not hurting anybody” when the simple truth is that only the copyright holder gets to determine how content can be legally distributed.

Steve

It’s A Sad Day For The Android Community

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