BOSTON, MA — Wednesday, November 15, 2006 — The Free SoftwareFoundation (FSF) welcomed the public commitment from Sun Microsystems todistribute its proprietary Java platform under the GNU General Public License(GPL) [1] — the world's most widely used free software license.

FSF president and founder Richard Stallman said, “I think Sun hascontributed more than any other company to the free software community in theform of software. It shows leadership. It's an example I hope others willfollow.”

Sun accompanied its announcement with the immediate release of code underterms of the GPL for several Java components, and has committed to releasingthe remainder in the near future. [2]

With this move, Sun has made a valuable contribution to the free softwarecommunity. In 2004, Stallman warned, “Your program, though in itselffree, may be restricted by non-free software that it depends on. Since theproblem is most prominent today for Java programs, we call it the JavaTrap.” [3] To escape the trap, the FSF made the GNU Classpath team'sdevelopment of a free Java implementation a priority project. [4]

Now, Sun has begun disarming the “Java Trap”, turning it from apitfall into a valuable foundation for future free software development.

About the Free Software Foundation: The Free SoftwareFoundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right touse, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotesthe development and use of free (as in freedom) software — particularlythe GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants — and freedocumentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of theethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Their Web site,located at www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux.Donations to support their work can be madeathttp://donate.fsf.org. They areheadquartered in Boston, MA, USA.

Press contact: For more information about thisannouncement or to schedule an interview, please contact Brett Smith or JohnSullivan at (+1 617 542 5942) oremailpr@fsf.org.

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