Google Android
The “Break it Down” Blog reports that Google has finally released the software for their Android platform under free software licenses.
It’s official, no more waiting, no more secret SDKs and top-secret government handshakes (ok, there never really was), but it’s still nice to hear that Google has officially Open Sourced Android.
The preferred licensing for working with the Android platform is the Apache 2.0 license. For folks wanting to contribute directly to the platform you will need to complete and send in a signed Individual Contributor License Grant and for corporations that are assigning people to work with and contribute to the Android project, they must complete the Corporate Contributor License Grant; I imagine this is very similar to how the Eclipse Foundation works as well.
Much of the code is under the Apache 2.0 License, so there’s no guarantee that your Android phone will not be tivoized, or that proprietary code won’t be slipped in by the handset manufacturer or phone company.