[Nexus 7 (2013) Original Android Development] Cruiserdude:
First and foremost I wanna thank [MENTION=4318865]DevSwift1[/MENTION] and the rest of the contributors for making such a solid build in such short order. I've been a member of this community for some time, and have really come to prefer clean stock AOSP with Google's experience baked in. I like having the latest and greatest builds, and performance is very important, so obviously Nexus devices appeal to me very much. Got my Flo right after it came out, and absolutely loved it ever since. Had it for over three years and was rather upset to find that it will no longer be supported going forward.

So I was beyond thrilled to have the chance to try stock Nougat on my beloved Flo so quickly. You've done a great job, honestly my experience hasnt been much different than if Google had decided to release a build themselves. So hats off to ya!

That said, I hate the turn the discussion took for a minute there. Hopefully it was all a misunderstanding that we can all move on from. The fact is that Google made it clear years ago that they do not allow anyone to build roms from source with their GApps bundled in unless they pass the Android Compatibility Test Suite, and enter into a license agreement for Google Mobile Services, the specific terms of which have not been made public and likely vary among licensees.

They also indeed said that they would look the other way if the GApps binaries were installed over such a source built rom by the end user, which is honestly what allowed development to continue as it has. You have to remember that the Google mobile app experience is the entire reason they purchased controlling interest in Android in the first place. They feared Apple may sour on the at-the-time cozy relationship they had, and wanted to hedge their bets on a competing mobile OS they could ensure would always be friendly to their apps. Of course we all know Android is free and open source, so Google makes their money off of the apps, or more precisely, the information services they leverage. So we must respect that GApps are entirely Google's property, and an extremely important and valuable one at that.

That is why it is so important to follow their wishes regarding GApps, and why some people are so passionate about defending it. Looking at the rest if the tech industry, it's frankly shocking that they do allow us to flash the binaries. Any other company would do everything in their power to ensure that we could not access or install the apps, up to or including legal action. So playing fast and loose with such a generous is certainly unwise if we want the community as we know it to endure.

That said, people also need to respect the time and effort the devs here put into their work. Sure, most of them enjoy it and do it for personal reasons, but they still share so we all can benefit. They don't anyone a thing, not a patch, bug fix, update, or even an answer to a question and yet here they are going above and beyond. So it is equally important to show respect to them.

It would appear that OP was unfamiliar with Google's wishes regarding GApps. So someone could have contacted him privately to explain this. Taking over his thread after its been featured on the main page, and reporting a copyright violation of all things was certainly not the right way to handle this. At the least that could run him off, and at the worst could force Google to make a clear determination regarding such things, and that would certainly not go in our favor.

So please let us all think before we speak/post, and be helpful and respectful if we want this community to last.