“Coffee in Iceland: The Ethics of Java on Android” is a paper I wrote for my Professional Responsibilities class about the Oracle vs. Google lawsuit. It discusses the ethics of Google’s use of the Dalvik virtual machine.

Coffee in Iceland: The Ethics of Java on Android (180.9 KB)

Abstract

Google released Android on November 5, 2007 as a platform for mobile phones. Programmers can write applications for Android in Java. These programs are run with Dalvik — a virtual machine that Google created. In 2010, Oracle America Inc. filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that Dalvik infringed on Oracle’s intellectual property. This raises the question: is Google’s use of the Dalvik virtual machine in Android ethical? Dalvik is ethical because it uses industry standards, follows licensing restrictions, and contributes to the public good, in accordance with the ACM Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.

(It should be noted that the author of this paper is employed by Google at time of writing.)