JDK Source Code License Inconsistency [closed]

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Closed 8 years ago.

I installed the latest JDK (1.7.0_21). When I view source code for a foundation class in Eclipse, such as java.lang.String the license at the top of the file reads:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1994, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 * ORACLE PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
 */

This source code comes from the src.zip file that comes with a JDK release.

When I look at the source code here: http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/root/jdk/openjdk/7-b147/java/lang/String.java?av=f

... I see the the GPL v2.0 license header.

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1994, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 *
 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
 *
 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
 * questions.
 */

As I understood, JDK 1.7 was released as full open source, licensed under GPL 2.0.

Can someone explain the license discrepancy?

Answer 1

OpenJDK is released under GPL 2.0

From the OpenJDK FAQs

What open-source license is OpenJDK published under?

GPL v2 for almost all of the virtual machine, and GPL v2 + the Classpath exception for the class libraries and those parts of the virtual machine that expose public APIs.

Will Oracle change the OpenJDK licensing model?

No. The OpenJDK Community continues to thrive with contributions from Oracle, as well as other companies, researchers, and individuals, and the GPL-based licensing model is one large part of this success. Oracle has no plans to change it.

Oracle JDK is released under Oracle License. From FAQs

Java SE continues to be available under the Oracle Binary Code License (BCL) free of charge.

Answer 2

You are looking at two different versions One is an old version of the OpenJDK 7 and the other is the latest version Oracle's JDK which is based on the OpenJDK.