Imagine my shock this morning when I heard the news that the lawyers at Google had delivered a cease and desist letter against Steve Kondik, who is one of the Android community’s most celebrated developers. Kondik operates the popular website Cyanogenmod.com which offers a free, modified version of Android. The mod, called CyanogenMod, claims to have over 30,000 active users.

Obviously since Android is “open source” Google shouldn’t care to squelch the mod itself, but rather is taking issue with the fact that the firmware includes other closed source Google applications such as G-mail, Google Talk, and You Tube.

This is a surprising move from a company who has taken pains to distance itself from the totalitarian tactics of Apple who exercises a rigid control over apps and firmware alike for its popular Iphone. While Google is technically right, one can only wonder what they have to gain from targeting such a high profile player in the Android community over the distribution of applications which are obviously freely distributed elsewhere.