CyanogenMod in trouble?
[From androidandme.com]
Everyone’s favorite Android hacker appears to have angered someone at Google. We just received word that Cyanogen has received a cease and desist letter from Google. Details are scarce, but it appears Google is not happy about Cyanogen distributing their closed source Android apps (Market, Talk, Gmail, YouTube, etc). CyanogenMod is easily the most popular custom Android rom with over 30,000 active users.
Relevant bits from the chat log we received:
[20:03] <cyanogen> google just cease and desisted me
[20:15] <cyanogen> cyanogenmod is probably going to be dead
[20:16] <cyanogen> i’m opening a dialogue with them
[20:20] <cyanogen> no they are talking specifically about the closed-source google apps
[20:20] <cyanogen> and how i am not licensed to distribute them
[20:20] <cyanogen> my argument is that i only develop for google-experience devices which are already licensed for these apps
[20:20] <cyanogen> so we’ll see what they say
[20:20] <cyanogen> maybe we can work something out
[20:24] <cyanogen> maps, market, talk, gmail, youtube
Hopefully, the two parties will be able to work something out. I’ve been using CyanogenMod on both my Android phones for several months and they are awesome. If you want to show your support for Cyanogen, you can always visit his site and place a donation (His site is down at the moment) for all the countless hours he has put into improving the Android platform.
[End androidandme.com content]
Google you better watch it, you might just piss off the wrong group of people you have been trying to so feverishly accumulate. Do be like Apple, and have to control everything. Android is open source.
And if I want to use other firmware in my phone then dammit im gonna with or without your or T-Mobile’s ok.
Brahmson
September 26th, 2009 at 6:49 am #
In practicality Google now controls the Android market. If you go down the list of apps they close-sourced you will see that the barrier to entry into the market is too high for an open community to penetrate. Core components like “Market”, “Sync” and others are just few examples.
The question is not the licensing rights they may have but the overall control they exert on the market. On the face of it one might think that Apple has the legal right to control the iPhone market. Not that simple. Both Apple and Google can do so as long as the FCC does not decide that it has a chilling effect on the market. You can disagree with the FCC’s right to interfere, but that’s another matter (the use of regulated airwaves gives the regulator some unusual powers).
Google just gave Apple a big argument to defent their rejection of Google voice.
And if this community of Android fans brings this issue up, Google may realize that it is in their own best LEGAL interests to back off. Other valuable arguments do not impress lawyers. Lawyers only understand legal arguments and once this issue is brought up to their attention they have a fiduciary obligation to inform Google of the exposure with the FCC case.