59 行
2.4 KiB
HTML
59 行
2.4 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2010-09-07">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>EU survey on Free Software and standards: make your voice heard!</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>EU survey on Free Software and standards: make your voice heard!</h1>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>This <a href="
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http://projects.isi.tu-berlin.de/ipr/eso/survey.php">survey</a> is a
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key component of
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a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/european-standards/standardisation-policy/policy-activities/intellectual-property-rights/index_en.htm">study</a>
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that will play the major role in the EC's reform of standardisation
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policy. It is open until September 17.</p>
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<p>A major theme in the survey is whether patents that cover standards
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should be licensed royalty-free
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(the <a href="http://www.w3.org/">W3C</a> takes this approach), or
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whether they should instead be licensed under so-called "fair,
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reasonable and non-discriminatory terms"
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(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRAND">FRAND</a>).
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</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>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."</p>
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<p> 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.</p>
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<p>"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!"</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="swpat">Software Patents</tag>
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<tag key="policy"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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