Copyleft got left in the name of progress (Score 1)

It might be worth noting that Google originally rejected copyleft in favor of permissive licensing in the name of giving OEM sand carriers more control over Android on their devices.

They did, but that practice of benevolence was quickly up once the time from code release to users adoption became astronomical, causing pitchforks and branding irons labled 'fragmentation' to bought out by every fanboy and 'industry expert'. Something had to be done.

Besides, Android as a pure OS is still freely available so that hackers and researchers can continue peacefully using the software. As for this new play services app, I'm a little concerned about what possible exploitable backdoors this might enable. Infect a phone with a modified play services .apk and it seems like you have the Android version of a rootkit.