Protecode Blog

Protecode at the First Android Developer Conference

Protecode was a platinum sponsor at the inaugural AnDevcon 2011. It was held in San Mateo this month, and attracted over 800 attendees all corners of the Android world. There were three days of educational workshops for those both in the commercial and development app domains. Not to mention an exciting round of lightning talks, plenty of BlackBerry bashing, and an ATARI giveaway. The sheer number and diversity of characters made this year’s conference a learning experience for all players in the Android sandbox.

In general, the largest group of attendees were from the software development community, either corporate developers, or those building apps on the Android platform. At the Protecode exhibitor booth, there were a lot of visitors who observed that license compliance tools were playing a large role at this conference. With three different vendors in sponsorship and presentation roles, it was hard to miss this theme. Although there were some visitors just getting up to speed on the layered intricacies of licensing in the Android platform, most have come to accept that open source license compliance is a part of everyday software quality assurance (SQA). Adding more emphasis to this topic was the realization that both app developers and app vendors are liable for license violations.

The Android platform is built upon at GPL-licensed Linux kernel; however the different layers and wrapper license have their own licenses. Android’s multiple versions, and multiple internal and external components, creates some confusion and difficulty navigating the license tree. Your role (e.g. chip vendor, component vendor, handset vendor, etc.) and level you’re developing (Linux kernel, libraries, application framework, etc.) are important factors to note. Add to that the end-goal of your work – modification, distribution, commercialization – and you have a good starting point to understand your license obligations. This may seem overwhelming to some, hence a systematic approach and assessment is the best way to get started. Needless to say, catching issues earlier in the development lifecycle make them easier to address.

For those new to the game, open source license compliance should not be met with uncertainty and fear of lawsuits. Protecode System 4 prides itself in seamless and transparent adoption into SQA processes. This point really seemed to resonate with the developer community at AnDevcon 2011. The last thing that any developer wants is someone telling them to change or fix something that isn’t broken.

For more information on licensing issues surrounding Android download our whitepaper What Android Develpers Need to Know.