The series of Sun licenses for Java hints at a long-term plan. It appears that Sun is determined not to make the Sun Java implementation free software; instead, Sun is trying one way after another to offer us something that falls short -- hoping that eventually we will accept less than freedom. Each new Java license is another probe of the community's will.
Sooner or later, Sun's management must think, we will be caught off guard; perhaps we will get tired of saying 'no'; some of us may develop an urge to reward Sun for having "tried" so long and hard.
But there's a better alternative: forget Sun, and use free Java implementations such as Kaffe and Japhar. GNU volunteers are developing a thorough and powerful replacement for Java Core API, called GNU Classpath. (Free but less-powerful Java Core API replacements are already available.) We're now looking for volunteers to begin developing a replacement for JFC.
Promoting the use of alternative implementations has the side benefit of paving the way for the Java language standard to be decided by a standards committee, the way it is done for C and C++, rather than by any one company.
By sticking to free implementations of Java, by making freedom the criterion, we may eventually convince Sun to release free software. Or we may not. But either way, Java users will have freedom, and that's what really matters.