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Naughton made the same claim in March and again in August. It looks like nobody is listening to his dog whistling else he wouldn't be at it for the third time in a calendar year.
His charges are the same: a key component of Android, the Bionic library which is used to access the core features of the Linux kernel code, was developed by Google stripping the kernel headers and then declaring those files free of the copyright restrictions placed on it by the GPL.
Naughton's third bid for attention attempts to analyse his earlier allegations in light of the summary judgement in the case between Google and Oracle; the case revolves around Dalvik, the VM created by Google. Oracle claims this is in violation of its Java APIs and code.
Linux expert Brian Proffitt has done an excellent analysis of the charges in Naughton chapter 3 (PDF). Read it, is my advice. There are a lot of general issues that present themselves, though, and which Proffitt has not touched on.
Exactly why Naughton should be so agitated about this issue - which is a hypothesis, remember - is unclear.
One reason could be that he is touting for business. Despite the fact that Android has been late on the handheld scene, it is slowly becoming the dominant operating system for handheld devices by a big margin.
Manufacturers love it because it is free. They love the flexibility that the Linux kernel offers. They love even more the fact that Google's own additions to it are under an Apache licence which has none of the strictures of the GPL.
Hence if there is something that could get in the way of Android being distributed and a competitor could prove that in court with the aid of our good friend Naughton, why it would be payday for the lawyer. And not an ordinary payday either.
