Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> European Commission to exclude Open Source developers with patented standards?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| The European Commission is organizing next week in Brussels a conference
>| on "European ICT standardisation policy at a crossroads: A new direction for
>| global success". Among the papers in discussion for this conference, one
>| paper suggests to allow RAND standards as general policy. The European
>| Commission seems to listen to the big industry who contributed to the
>| discussion paper. RAND standards (such as h264 or MPEG2) are a way to exclude
>| FLOSS developers, because they require royalty payments that developers
>| cannot afford.
> `----
>
> http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-39739/european-commission-to-exclude-open-source-developers-with-patented-standards
> http://tinyurl.com/36u6m8
>
This is precisely the technique which was used to undermine the ITU
standardisation system. Standards which used to be truly open are now a
minefield of legal and illegal (software) patents. If any business is
confused about whether this will help them, a quick look at the
appalling state of most NEPs will show that all it achieved was to
destroy the manufacturers.
How can we apply a suitable counter position which will show the
desperate risks the EU is taking here with respect to the EU's economy,
now and in the future?
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
