[Android-tools-devel] Android SDK license

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

The Android SDK lets each SDK package have its own license.  Those can
be any kind of license.  Usually, the full text of the license is in the
repository XML, for example:

https://dl.google.com/android/repository/repository-12.xml

.hc

Jack Dodds via Android-tools-devel:
> I sent this post to debian-android-tools at lists.debian.org but
> that list seems to be inactive. If this post appears twice in
> anyone's Inbox, my apologies.
> 
> I have searched the list archives for a few years back for posts
> with "licence" of "license" in the Subject and did not find
> anything that really answers my question. So I hope someone can
> explain.
> 
> The wiki at https://wiki.debian.org/AndroidTools includes the
> statement:
> 
> "The binaries for the Android SDK downloadable from Google have
> a proprietary license but the source code is free software so
> Debian is packaging it."
> 
> But, the wiki also contains a link to an introduction to
> building apps at
> 
> https://wiki.debian.org/AndroidTools/IntroBuildingApps
> 
> and in that page there is the statement: "Accepting SDK license
> - - To use the android-sdk you must accept its license. At the
> present moment there are some ways to do so, but none of them is
> perfect."
> 
> There a reference to "a git repository containing all the needed
> licenses" at
> 
> https://github.com/Shadowstyler/android-sdk-licenses.git
> 
> But, the file called android-sdk-license in that repository
> contains nothing but a 40 character hex string, presumably a
> hash of the actual license.
> 
> So, my questions:
> 
> 1. If the source code is "free software", why does the user have
> to accept a license?
> 
> 2. Where is the full text of the license to which the user is
> agreeing?
> 
> 
> Searching for the actual license on the Internet, all I could
> find was this:
> 
> https://developer.android.com/studio/terms
> 
> which includes the following [EMPHASIS added by me]
> 
> This is the Android Software Development Kit License Agreement
> ...
> 1.3 A "COMPATIBLE IMPLEMENTATION" means any Android device that
> (i) complies with the Android Compatibility Definition document,
> which can be found at the Android compatibility website
> (http://source.android.com/compatibility) and which may be
> updated from time to time; and (ii) successfully passes the
> Android Compatibility Test Suite (CTS).
> 
> 2.1 ... You may not use the SDK if you do not accept the License
> Agreement.
> ...
> 
> 3.1 Subject to the terms of the License Agreement, Google grants
> you a limited, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable,
> non-exclusive, and non-sublicensable license to use the SDK
> SOLELY to develop applications for COMPATIBLE IMPLEMENTATIONS of
> Android.
> 
> 3.2 You MAY NOT use this SDK to develop applications for OTHER
> PLATFORMS (including non-compatible implementations of Android)
> or to develop another SDK
> ...
> 
> The above is clearly NOT a free software licence. I hope that
> this is the proprietary license for the SDK binaries referred to
> above - and that the licence for the source is something
> different.
> 
> 
> Thanks for your help,
> 
> Jack Dodds
> 
>
>
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