Our economic structure is based on capitalism. Often forgotten but there is really nothing free in life. Regardless of opinions on the whole issue and what is "fair" or not; companies are the aggregates of consumers, employees, investors, etc. They choose to enact choices that produce value to the stake holders. Often these are rich investors, but they can be employees, the common person with a 401k, retirees, etc. Blame the rich CEO but there are many individuals who are never discussed and benefit from a company succeeding. So hate it or love it the reality is we chose as a country to live in a society where hard work/risk/innovation can bring greater reward than laziness/playing safe/lacking creativity. As someone who has worked hard for anything I have and as a parent it is hard to blame Oracle for choosing to succeed. This is a fairly common practice that happens hundreds of times a day. Why did Google patent local search technology? To sue or license it. We offer patents to encourage disclosure in return for protection to the owner of IP (intellectual property).
Why do individuals not own patents? Think of it this way, go out and pay someone to come up with an idea. Then let them take it away, make money, and never give you a thing in return. Not something that works at any level.
Java is just one of those things Google chose. Come on if they can't do a little homework on the licensing rules with the billions in cash they have then shame on them. What rails, perl, something wasn't available as an alternative? They couldn't sign a licensing agreement in advance?
I do entirely agree that patent trolls are BS. In this case Oracle/sun spends money actively working on Java r/d, support, etc. So they are not a troll. The patent system needs to reflect the constant change of pace, clarify what is a generic Foo like concept versus a true innovation, and make sure if no product comes to market actively in a certain timeframe the patent dies faster.
What we need is to recognize that a loaf of bread costs a jar of milk and get over it all. If we don't like Oracle, then stop buying their stuff. If you don't like companies like oracle buying sun, then everyone white night and buy up shares refusing to sell. We all have power to make changes. We just lack the will, organization, and understanding to do anything but complain. I agree it's a lot of work to move some of these mountains. However look how pressure on Microsoft semi-pushed them more open source. Why no pressure on Oracle?