The Apache Software Foundation has released the following announcement:

"The Apache Software Foundation has resigned its seat on the Java SE/EE Executive Committee...The recent Java SE 7 vote was the last chance for the JCP EC to demonstrate that the EC has any intent to defend the JCP as an open specification process, and demonstrate that the letter and spirit of the law matter. To sum up the issues at stake in the vote, we believe that while continuing to fail to uphold their responsibilities under the JSPA, Oracle provided the EC with a Java SE 7 specification request and license that are self-contradictory, severely restrict distribution of independent implementations of the spec, and most importantly, prohibit the distribution of independent open source implementations of the spec. Oracle has refused to answer any reasonable and responsible questions from the EC regarding these problems."

Dr. Dobb's contributor Eric Bruno, who has been following the build-up to this news closely, has posted his thoughts on the news here.