2010-09-07 10:07:58 +00:00
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EU survey on Free Software and standards: make your voice heard!
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2010-09-07 10:25:53 +00:00
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The Free Software Foundation Europe is calling on European Free Software
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businesses to participate in a survey of business attitudes
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towards the acceptability of including patents in industry standards.
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2010-09-07 10:07:58 +00:00
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2010-09-07 10:25:53 +00:00
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The survey [http://projects.isi.tu-berlin.de/ipr/eso/survey.php] is
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a key component of a study that will play the major role in the
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EC's reform of standardisation policy. It is open for submissions until
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September 17.
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2010-09-07 10:07:58 +00:00
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2010-09-07 10:25:53 +00:00
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A major theme in the survey is whether patents that cover standards
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should be licensed royalty-free (the W3C [fn:1] takes this
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approach), or whether they should instead be licensed under so-called
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2010-09-07 10:07:58 +00:00
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"fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" (FRAND) [fn:2].
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FRAND is a misnomer as the terms are neither fair nor reasonable, nor
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non-discriminatory - either for Free Software or indeed for anyone
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other than the small circle of the very largest players in the
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software market.
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FSFE's President Karsten Gerloff says: "For Free Software, these
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terms are disastrous as well as discriminatory to the point of
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exclusion. They require royalties to be paid per copy, which makes it
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impossible to distribute a program as Free Software - an obvious
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nonsense."
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2010-09-07 10:25:53 +00:00
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A second theme in the survey is the question of which standardisation
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2010-09-07 10:07:58 +00:00
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organisations should receive official recognition. Should only those
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standards that come out of organisations like ISO be recognised, or
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should governments also accept standards that come out of industry
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fora and consortia? Typically, the decision processes in fora and
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consortia are somewhat more friendly to Free Software than those of
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formal standardisation organisations, where established interests are
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usually deeply entrenched.
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It is of critical importance that as many Free Software companies as
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possible respond to this survey, so that their views are heard and
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form part of the data for the study. The implicit assumptions of the
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survey are, unfortunately, biased towards large corporations with
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dedicated 'standardisation employees'. This makes it all the more
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important that Europe's Free Software companies speak up for
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themselves.
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"We need to make sure that the data gathered in this survey will
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reflect the actual needs of European businesses", says Karsten
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Gerloff. "Don't allow our common interests to be ignored!"
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* Footnotes
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[fn:1] World Wide Web Consortium, http://www.w3.org/
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[fn:2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRAND
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