89 řádky
4.4 KiB
HTML
89 řádky
4.4 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
|
|
<html newsdate="2017-06-13">
|
|
<version>1</version>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>New European Interoperability Framework calls on public sector to contribute to Free Software</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
|
|
<h1>New European Interoperability Framework calls on public sector to contribute to Free Software</h1>
|
|
|
|
<p>The revised "new"
|
|
<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en">European Interoperability Framework</a> (EIF),
|
|
adopted by the European Commission on 23 March 2017, gives specific guidance
|
|
on how to set up interoperable digital public services, and offers public
|
|
administrations concrete recommendations on how to improve interoperability
|
|
of their e-services.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The FSFE <a href="/news/2016/news-20160624-01.html">participated</a>
|
|
in the public consultation round on the draft version of the revised
|
|
EIF (published in 2016). The "new" EIF includes significant improvements
|
|
in alignment with our answers and in contrast to the draft version and
|
|
the previous <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/sites/isa/files/isa_annex_ii_eif_en.pdf">EIF v.2</a>.
|
|
However, the European Commission (EC) has not sufficiently addressed
|
|
the risks that a FRAND-based standardisation policy pose to Free Software.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>In alignment with our <a href="/freesoftware/standards/eif-v3.html">answers</a>
|
|
to the public consultation, the new EIF includes the principle of openness
|
|
that was absent from the draft version. Furthermore, the principle of
|
|
openness according to the new EIF requires public administrations to
|
|
actively consider using Free Software when offering their public services:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p>Recommendation 3: Ensure a level playing field for open source
|
|
software and demonstrate active and fair consideration of using open
|
|
source software, taking into account the total cost of ownership of
|
|
the solution.</p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Furthermore, according to the new EIF public administrations should
|
|
not only use Free Software but <strong>"whenever possible contribute to the
|
|
pertinent developer communities"</strong>. Free Software is also called
|
|
<strong>"an enabler of the underlying EIF principle on reusability"</strong>.
|
|
This is a significant improvement in comparison to both previous
|
|
<a href="/freesoftware/standards/eifv2.html">EIF v.2</a>
|
|
(published in 2010) and the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/files/57b2ecd5-effa-4594-9ef2-47e7ecc67047">draft</a>
|
|
version that was open for public consultation. The need for more Free
|
|
Software when offering e-services was also <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/isa2/sites/isa/files/eif-public-consultation-factual-summary-en.pdf">expressed</a>
|
|
by majority of citizen respondents to the public consultation, and it
|
|
is plausible to see that the EC included the wishes of the EU citizens
|
|
to the new EIF. </p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Licensing policies of so called "open specifications" (the alternative
|
|
term the European Commission uses for <a href="/freesoftware/standards/standards.html">Open Standards</a>)
|
|
have also been revised for the better. The EIF v.2 based its appropriate
|
|
licensing model on what is described as "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory"
|
|
(FRAND)/or royalty-free terms, despite that FRAND <a href="/freesoftware/standards/why-frand-is-bad-for-free-software.en">does not allow standards to be implemented in Free Software</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The new EIF gives a slight preference to the royalty-free licensing
|
|
terms when it comes to licensing of "open specifications", which is an
|
|
improvement to the previous version.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>However, the new EIF ignores the fact that "royalty-free" is not a
|
|
sub-term of FRAND, and the way the new EIF is worded still gives a preference
|
|
to FRAND terms, but just without royalties. This is extremely problematic,
|
|
as the effects of FRAND do not solely come from royalty-related criteria,
|
|
but also include several other restrictions that make FRAND incompatible
|
|
with Free Software.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Unfortunately, the way the new EIF is basing its licensing policies
|
|
of open specifications can still prevent Free Software projects from
|
|
offering their services to the public sector.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
<tags>
|
|
<tag key="front-page"/>
|
|
<tag key="digital-single-market">DigitalSingleMarket</tag>
|
|
<tag key="policy">policy</tag>
|
|
<tag key="eif">EIF</tag>
|
|
<tag key="openstandards">OpenStandards</tag>
|
|
</tags>
|
|
<author id="malaja"/>
|
|
|
|
</html>
|