Google Quietly Makes Android Source Harder to Get
Google stopped pushing Git tags for certain Android source code and replaced the process with a Google Forms request plus Google Drive delivery. The HN thread is debating whether this violates GPLv2. Most commenters land on 'technically compliant but hostile,' noting that GPL requires source access but doesn't mandate any specific delivery mechanism.
The pattern: Google has always treated Android as 'source available' rather than genuinely open source. This move makes the friction of accessing that source meaningfully higher, which practically reduces the number of people who will do it. The legal argument that it's 'not a GPL violation' is probably correct, but the spirit of open source is clearly being walked back.
Commenters noted this fits a longer pattern of Android becoming more closed over time, even as Google maintains the technical compliance cover.
So what?
If you're building anything that depends on Android AOSP as an upstream reference or that needs to track Android internals, your workflow just got more painful. More broadly, this is a reminder that 'open source' from a large platform company is a policy decision that can change, not a guarantee, so building critical dependencies on it carries real risk.