When James Gosling left Oracle back in April, he said he was “pretty encouraged about the way things would work out” for Java. But now the father of Java is leading a campaign to protest Oracle’s strategy for the open source programming language, including the software giant’s recent lawsuit against Google.

On Friday, Gosling revealed on his blog “free Java” t-shirts (and mugs and pins) that he designed himself and asked JavaOne and OpenWorld attendees to wear one to “let Larry know you care.” The shirts feature the slogan “Java – Just Free It. Hold Oracle to their Pledge,” referring to Oracle’s promise in 2007 to create an independent Java foundation.

Oracle’s lawsuit against Google last month claims that Google is violating Oracle’s intellectual property through its use of Java on its Android smartphone.  And though he claimed to be “pretty encouraged,” maybe Gosling actually had an inkling that something like this would happen when he left Oracle:

“During the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle where we were being grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the Oracle lawyer’s eyes sparkle,” he wrote in an Aug. 12 blog post.

But Gosling isn’t the only one to stage a protest at JavaOne – Google is showing a major one of its own by pulling out of the conference altogether. Google was supposed to play a significant role in the JavaOne, with employees scheduled to present a variety of sessions on topics including Java in the cloud and GUI animation.  Google’s Joshua Bloch called his company’s absence at the show a “painful realization”:

“We wish that we could [present at the show], but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally,” he said.

Google has also called the lawsuit “baseless” – but is this completely true? And could something like Gosling’s t-shirts really prove this? JavaWorld blogger Josh Fruhlinger certainly doesn’t think so. He writes that “the idea that (the t-shirts will) somehow change Oracle’s trajectory strikes me as ludicrous,” adding that while an independent Java foundation once made sense for Oracle, it’s no longer in Oracle’s best interests (and Gosling and others may be having a hard time separating emotion from business).

Ellison and executive vice president Thomas Kurian plan to discuss the future of Java in the opening keynote at JavaOne. It should be interesting to see how many Gosling t-shirts we notice in the crowd- will you be wearing one?

First, a quick summary. Oracle claims that Google is violating Oracle’s intellectual property related to Java with its Android operating system used on mobile phones. Oracle, of course, acquired Java when it bought Sun Microsystems earlier this year.

“In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement,” Oracle spokesperson Karen Tillman said in accusing Google of patent and copyright infringement.

In its response, Google called the lawsuit baseless: “We are disappointed Oracle has chosen to attack both Google and the open-source Java community with this baseless lawsuit. The open-source Java community goes beyond any one corporation and works every day to make the web a better place. We will strongly defend open-source standards and will continue to work with the industry to develop the Android platform.”

Google’s claim that it’s just defending the integrity of Java here is pretty laughable. James Gosling, considered the father of Java, hit pretty much spot on when he commented on the firestorm that there “are no guiltless parties with white hats in this little drama. This skirmish isn’t much about patents or principles or programming languages. The suit is far more about ego, money and power.”

In fact, the early history of Google’s interaction with Sun and its own Android OS is an indication of Google’s true intentions regarding Java. The bottom line: Google abused Sun’s Java patents because it knew that Sun wouldn’t fight back. Why? Because doing so would hurt Sun’s reputation in the open source community, a community the company was trying greatly to foster, especially in its later years.

According to Gosling and common sense, Google wanted the proliferation of the Android OS so it could start competing with Apple in the fast-growing mobile market. It bullied Sun to help them do that.

Further, according to The Wall Street Journal, Oracle did engage in talks with Google after the Sun acquisition in an attempt to get a licensing deal done. We’re not privy to those negotiations, and as most end users out there know, Oracle can drive a hard bargain when it comes to licensing. But it’s not like Oracle acquired Sun and immediately filed a suit against Google.