It seems as since the stock market crash of 2000, Sun has lost billions of dollars.
To try and recuperate and rebound from these losses, Sun has decided to open-source much of their Java technology.
Sun says that by open-sourcing Java, they hope to bolster the suffering company by enticing more programmers into Java development, thus increasing the number of programs dependant on Sun hardware and services.
I guess if you don't have the resources to continue the development of your product, you may as well let it live by giving it away to the people of the world.
Way to go Sun.
Long live Java!