READ ME: Clearing Misconceptions About CyanogenMod C&D

[jashsu]

Lately a lot of threads have been popping up on this subforum and others with regard to the CyanogenMod C&D. A lot of these long threads seem to just be giant echo chambers filled with uninformed or ignorant end-users who don't understand the true nature of the situation. I am creating this thread to help clear up the misconceptions surrounding CyanogenMod, the AOSP, and Google's position in this matter.

Here are some common misconceptions and their clarifications:

"We should petition to keep Android open source!"

Google acquired Android, Inc. in 2005 and began investing time and manpower to develop the Android operating system into a fully fledged mobile operating system. The entire project was open sourced in October 2008 to coincide with the first public availability of the Dream hardware. Since then, the Android Open Source Project (which consists of all the source code required to build a working Android environment) has been completely open source. Period.

On top of the completely open source operating system, Google also bundled several useful applications into many stock builds of Android. These builds are commonly referred to as "Google Experience" builds, and the apps include things like the Market, GMail, Youtube, etc. These are NOT a part of the Android Open Source Project, they NEVER WERE a part, and it is unlikely that they ever will be. Many end users seem to have the misconception that these apps are and/or should be a part of the AOSP. They are not. Period.

"Google is trying to keep me from installing other ROMs [sic]!"

The C&D letter to Cyanogen was not meant to suppress users from using non-official builds ("ROMs"). The purpose of the cease and desist letter was to stop Cyanogen from continuing to redistribute without permission the proprietary Google-specific apps described above. This is completely within Google's right to do so.

Now to be fair, the work done on xda has often skirted the matter of unauthorized redistribution. In fact, without unauthorized redistribution, it would be difficult (but not impossible) to "cook ROMs". However, unauthorized redistribution has generally been viewed as an unspoken, ungranted privilege. If the company holding the rights to the related software issues a cease and desist letter, the community must respect that choice. To fail to do so would only serve to delegitimize what we do here and risk the survival of the os hacking community as a whole. Users with an overinflated sense of entitlement, you are not welcome here!

"I bought the phone, I should have a right to use the proprietary Google software however I like."

Generally, being legally licensed to run a software package does still impose limitations on your usage of it (e.g. you cannot make unauthorized copies or disassemble it). However, in this case, the violation is not in the end-user act of installing CyanogenMod, it is with Cyanogen distributing it. And by no means is this singling out Cyanogen; any "ROM cooker" that includes copyrighted proprietary software in the updater (which at this point is the majority of them) is potentially risking a legal letter.

"Google should not have waited until Cyanogen had worked so much to shut him down!"

As in #2, I have to emphasize that unauthorized redistribution is something of an unspoken tacit permission. "ROM cookers" therefore need to exercise good judgement. Back when builds were simply slightly modified versions of stock update.zip files, it was easy for Google to turn a blind eye. The latest CyanogenMod installer included a leaked pre-release version of the Android Market software. Now, I hope it's plainly obvious for even the most oblivious reader, but if you leak a company's unreleased proprietary software before their official release, chances are you will piss them off. Leaks like this have several potentially negative consequences for companies: 1) decreased perceived quality because the program had not been fully debugged, 2) ruining planned launch timelines, 3) causing server backend issues due to unrecognized clients logging in.

Bottom line is this: if you are a "ROM cooker" and you absolutely have to include proprietary copyrighted software in your build, DO NOT INCLUDE ANY UNRELEASED SOFTWARE. You will very likely get C&D'd.

"Google should appreciate Cyanogen's hard work!"

From the time you boot up your phone to when you run that first app, probably somewhere like only 1% of the code is written by the "ROM cook". The process of "cooking a ROM" is not, for the most part, programming.

If you want to give credit where credit is due, for the most part you would be thanking Linus Torvalds and the contributors of the Linux kernel, the Android Open Source Project team, and the folks who really did the groundbreaking work establishing root access on the Dream.

[IronFly]

good post!

[dwang]

Agreed, very good post..

[vixsandlee]

Maybe someone can clear something up for me (its been bugging me a little)

If i compile from source i need to add files that are pulled from my phone.

Does this mean that ALL roms are technically illegal, even if they dont include the google closed source programs.

Or are we ok to include these files as they are needed for the phone to work, so considered closed source but part of asop?


I have not seen this addressed and i am curious what the state of play is with these files.

[harry_m]

Agreed ........ !

[Metal_Hurlant]

Thank you for taking the time to clear things up. Hopefully this will help folks gain some perspective and move toward productive directions.

If i compile from source i need to add files that are pulled from my phone. Does this mean that ALL roms are technically illegal, even if they dont include the google closed source programs. Or are we ok to include these files as they are needed for the phone to work, so considered closed source but part of aosp?

Good question. It certainly means the ROM is not purely open-source, at the least.

My sense is that those files are the property of HTC and we don't have a license to redistribute them.

Now I don't really expect HTC to serve anyone with a C&D anytime soon, for various reasons, but until a ROM cook gets a written license to redistribute those files from HTC, or until a fully open-source rewrite of those files is done, it's a gray area at the very least.

[jashsu]

Originally Posted by vixsandlee Does this mean that ALL roms are technically illegal, even if they dont include the google closed source programs.

Speaking very technically: yes, because you do not have the express right to redistribute the binary drivers for things like the wifi module or the radio. In reality, these pieces of code are so tightly tied to the hardware that it is unlikely you will get a c&d for redistributing them. However, in the hardcore open source community, even these drivers will be left out, requiring the user to fetch them for him/herself. That would be the 100% license-compliant way.

I'm pleased to say though, there are already many people working on semi and full license compliance methods and "ROMs". Just take a look at the first two pages of this subforum.

[TunsterX2]

Originally Posted by vixsandlee If i compile from source i need to add files that are pulled from my phone. Does this mean that ALL roms are technically illegal, even if they dont include the google closed source programs. Or are we ok to include these files as they are needed for the phone to work, so considered closed source but part of asop?

Read the post again. It's illegal to even copy the Google APKs files out of an original installation and import it into a custom ROM. The major issue was that all ROM creators were importing the Google Apps which are "closed-source" into their own legal open-source code.

I guess now, it'll be down to the individual to decide whether they want the Google Apps in their phone. That's why scripts have been created to give the user a choice on whether to do the illegal act of placing the Google Apps onto their phone.

Google are unlikely going to chase you the individual down rather than the ROM creator (like in Cyanogen's case with the C&D letter).

Hope this helps.

[roadrunnerx7]

ok. so then all this is not because of the google propriatary crap, but because he released the market early, so google just USED this BS reason to stop that? in other words, had he not released it early, nothing would have happened?

if thats the case, i dont blame cyanogen, but i blame ALL those GREEDY users that MUST have EVERYTHING before everyone else because they feel they need to be the best. you greedy punks almost ruined it for everyone. from what i see cyanogen usually tries his best to do what the people want, had the people not wanted the market so early(its not even that great, just new colors "ooohhh wooow ive never seen colors before i must have that! and now!".. ridiculous.) then this wouldnt happen.

now from i see the latest and "greatest" usually comes in the experimental releases. i think, cyanogen should shut down the experimental releases, or only release them to certain people.. or make it a lot LESS public..that way he can keep testing the stuff till its good and then release it as stable when he sees fit. i mean come on, 4.0.4 is already awesome!! i love it! been using since forever. why couldnt everyone else just be happy with 4.0.4?


and like the post said, dont be stupid and release some leaked program. cause it doesnt just shut you down its gonna shut everyone down. unfortunately i see that soon some noob working on hero roms is gonna release something, and then HTC will be here next.



oh and add this in there:

My guess is that Google has known for some time what was going on, but probably thought 'best not to upset the apple cart' while Android was in its infancy, with only one or two devices from a single manufacturer available on a single carrier. Now that we are on the verge of Android devices being shipped from at least five hardware vendors with over half a dozen carriers, Google probably felt that they needed to get a handle on this. I sense they feared things getting out of control with modders doing willy-nilly ports of innovations from one vendor/carrier to another—e.g., Motoblur on HTC devices and HTC Sense on Motorola devices. I think Google's legal team had a strong part in what took place, and forced action.

and i just saw a rom that got some of the motoblur stuff mixed with hero and for the g1. how long do you think till motorola and HTC are here complaining about software on the g1 that isnt supposed to be?

[peshkata]

Why don't Google offer these closed-source apps like they do for Google Maps? They could only benefit from more users having the 'Google Experience', even though their phones don't have them pre-installed.