Cultural Bent Hangs Over Oracle’s Battle for Sun

Oracle’s battle with European regulators over its acquisition of Sun Microsystems boils down to a conflict about the importance of free software and the government’s role in protecting it.

The verbal salvos heated up this week after the European Union issued formal objections on Monday to a bid by Oracle, the giant software maker, to buy Sun for $7.4 billion.

Oracle immediately pilloried the objections, saying they were based on ‚Äúa profound misunderstanding‚Äù of the software market…