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Leaked Letter — BSA Pressures Europe To Kill Open Standards

Posted by Soulskill on from the open-and-shut-investigation dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Business Software Alliance is trying to kill open standards. Free Software Foundation Europe has gotten hold of a letter in which the BSA tries to bully the European Commission into removing the last traces of support for open standards from its IT recommendations to the public sector. FSFE published the BSA's letter (PDF), and picked apart its arguments one by one."

9 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Seems pretty simple to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The documents the BSA is complaining about apparently give preference to "open specifications" that don't have the complication of software patents, that are freely implementable without licensing fees, etc. They aren't saying that software or standards with software patents and licensing fees are excluded from competition, only that the open ones are given preference over ones that aren't.

    It's all about saving money and avoiding unpleasant surprises (patent trolls) after a standard is deployed. What the hell is wrong with that?

    1. Re:Seems pretty simple to me by Macthorpe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't start being reasonable about it... You'll spoil everyone else's fun.

      --
      "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    2. Re:Seems pretty simple to me by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

      However, the EU could easily solve the patent troll issue when it comes to software: they could simply not recognize software patents.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
  2. Repugnant by amanicdroid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While it's easy to laugh at optimistic young people that want to "make the world a better place," I have nothing but total disdain and condemnation for those that want to make it worse.

    I'm looking at you BSA and cell phone makers that use weird plugs.

    1. Re:Repugnant by Twinbee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well said. Open source software is one thing, but open standards, (especially when it comes to hardware) is so critical in saving billions of pounds from the scourge of UWS (Unnecessary Work Syndrome).

      I feel that we're 'lucky' to have say, USB as a standard in connectors. It saves an untold amount of time, development and hassle. I think very long and hard before I buy a device these days which doesn't support charging through USB.

      --
      Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
  3. Reasonable and non-Discriminatory isn't by selven · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any royalty above zero is inherently discriminatory against small companies and startups. The FSF correctly point out that the amount of capital needed to start a software company is very small, so having to pay a royalty on top of that significantly increases the amount of capital needed. This is just an attempt by large companies to maintain their monopolies and prevent competition from even entering the playing field.

  4. Hope by should_be_linear · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lets hope their letter is already correctly tagged "-1 Troll" in EU parliament. Actually BSA has positive side-effect in Europe. Many people, like me, entered politics thanks to assholes like them. I joined Green Party to fight this scum and actually find out that IT-aware "departments" of political parties are quite small, so few informed people can influence not only party politics but also government (if/when that party is in government). Look at German greens, there popularity is skyrocketing. I bet quite few percent are young people pissed by Internet and free SW restricting lobbyist groups. Especially BSA.

    --
    839*929
  5. Concern Troll is a Troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Also check out the instant +5. Campaigning on /. is unethical.

    Florian Mueller is a professional PR man, advocate of Orwellian-named (F)RAND licensing and OOXML. In case anybody here doesn't know (unlikely), OOXML is Microsoft's misleadingly-named attempt to lock in the world's official documents. The fight against it was the good fight; only the most deluded and the paid disagree. Florian is the "corporate stooge" here.

    He is not a friend of FOSS. He is a paid advocate for Microsoft's and the BSA's policy goals.

    Never too late to change, Florian. Tell everyone who you work for, call off the mod brigade, do something good. This is not an abstract or esoteric debate to most of us here, it affects our lives directly. Leave the technology policy to us, go play soccer or something.

    1. Re:Concern Troll is a Troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Ah yes, you're not advocating OOXML, you're just suggesting that unencumbered document formats are an IBM conspiracy. And oh how you wish there was a better way than RAND! But there isn't, so the best thing for us to do is sign licensing agreements with Novell, Oracle, and Microsoft.

      Since it's all too unreasonable to comment on, just address one point: Categorically deny that you are being paid for this PR campaign, and that your posts and the the obscene moderation thereof are part of said campaign (not that I have any hope for an honest answer).

      A concern troll is a false flag pseudonym created by a user whose actual point of view is opposed to the one that the user claims to hold. The concern troll posts in web forums devoted to its declared point of view and attempts to sway the group's actions or opinions while claiming to share their goals, but with professed "concerns". The goal is to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt within the group.