title: Make Java runtime ignore serialVersionUIDs?
body: <p>I have to work with a large number of compiled Java classes which didn't explicitly specify a serialVersionUID. Because their UIDs were arbitrarily generated by the compiler, many of the classes which need to be serialized and deserialized end up causing exceptions, even though the actual class definitions match up. (This is all expected behavior, of course.)</p>
  
  <p>It is impractical for me to go back and fix all of this 3rd-party code.</p>
  
  <p>Therefore, my question is: Is there any way to make the Java runtime <em>ignore</em> differences in serialVersionUIDs, and only fail to deserialize when there are actual differences in structure?</p>