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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "digistan".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Trenger_en_avtale_med_MPEG_LA_for___publisere_og_kringkaste_H_264_video_.html">Trenger en avtale med MPEG-LA for å publisere og kringkaste H.264-video?</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         21st June 2012
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Trengs det avtale med MPEG-LA for å ha lovlig rett til å
  32 distribuere og kringkaste video i MPEG4 eller med videokodingen H.264?
  33 <a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 og MPEG4 er jo ikke en
  34 fri og åpen standard</a> i henhold til
  35 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fri_og__pen_standard__slik_Digistan_ser_det.html">definisjonen
  36 til Digistan</a>, så i enkelte land er det ingen tvil om at du må ha
  37 en slik avtale, men jeg må innrømme at jeg ikke vet om det også
  38 gjelder Norge.  Det ser uansett ut til å være en juridisk interessant
  39 problemstilling.  Men jeg tenkte her om dagen som så, at hvis det er
  40 nødvendig, så har store aktører som
  41 <a href="http://www.nrk.no/">NRK</a> og
  42 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/">regjeringen</a> skaffet seg en
  43 slik avtale.  Jeg har derfor sendt forespørsel til begge (for
  44 regjeringen sin del er det Departementenes Servicesenter som gjør
  45 jobben), og bedt om kopi av eventuelle avtaler de har om bruk av MPEG
  46 og/eller H.264 med MPEG-LA eller andre aktører som opererer på vegne
  47 av MPEG-LA.  Her er kopi av eposten jeg har sendt til
  48 <a href="http://www.dss.dep.no/">Departementenes Servicesenter</a>.
  49 Forespørselen til NRK er veldig lik.</p>
  50
  51 <p><blockquote>
  52
  53 <p>Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:18:33 +0200
  54 <br>From: Petter Reinholdtsen
  55 <br>To: postmottak@dss.dep.no
  56 <br>Subject: Innsynsbegjæring om MPEG/H.264-relaterte avtaler
  57
  58 <p>Hei.  Jeg ber herved om innsyn og kopi av dokumenter i DSS relatert
  59 til avtaler rundt bruk av videoformatene MPEG og H.264.  Jeg er
  60 spesielt interessert i å vite om DSS har lisensavtale med MPEG-LA
  61 eller noen som representerer MPEG-LA i Norge.</p>
  62
  63 <p>MPEG og H.264 er videoformater som brukes både til kringkasting
  64 (f.eks. i bakkenett og kabel-TV) og videopublisering på web, deriblant
  65 via Adobe Flash.  MPEG-LA, &lt;URL:
  66 <a href="http://www.mpeg-la.com/">http://www.mpeg-la.com/</a> &gt;, er
  67 en organisasjon som har fått oppgaven, av de kjente rettighetshavere
  68 av immaterielle rettigheter knyttet til MPEG og H.264, å selge
  69 bruksrett for MPEG og H.264.</p>
  70
  71 <p>Via regjeringen.no kringkastes med MPEG og H.264-baserte
  72 videoformater, og dette ser ut til å være organisert av DSS.  Jeg
  73 antar dermed at DSS har avtale med en eller annen aktør om dette.</p>
  74
  75 <p>F.eks. har Adobe Premiere Pro har følgende klausul i følge &lt;URL:
  76 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20000101-264.html">http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20000101-264.html</a>
  77 &gt;:</p>
  78
  79 <p><blockquote>
  80
  81   <p>6.17. AVC DISTRIBUTION. The following notice applies to software
  82   containing AVC import and export functionality: THIS PRODUCT IS
  83   LICENSED UNDER THE AVC PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSE FOR THE PERSONAL AND
  84   NON-COMMERCIAL USE OF A CONSUMER TO (a) ENCODE VIDEO IN COMPLIANCE
  85   WITH THE AVC STANDARD ("AVC VIDEO") AND/OR (b) DECODE AVC VIDEO THAT
  86   WAS ENCODED BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL
  87   ACTIVITY AND/OR AVC VIDEO THAT WAS OBTAINED FROM A VIDEO PROVIDER
  88   LICENSED TO PROVIDE AVC VIDEO. NO LICENSE IS GRANTED OR SHALL BE
  89   IMPLIED FOR ANY OTHER USE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED
  90   FROM MPEG LA L.L.C. SEE
  91   <a href="http://www.mpegla.com">http://www.mpegla.com</a>.</p>
  92
  93 </blockquote></p>
  94
  95 <p>Her er det kun "non-commercial" og "personal and non-commercial"
  96 aktivitet som er tillatt uten ekstra avtale med MPEG-LA.</p>
  97
  98 <p>Et annet tilsvarende eksempel er Apple Final Cut Pro, som har
  99 følgende klausul i følge &lt;URL:
 100 <a href="http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/finalcutstudio2.pdf">http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/finalcutstudio2.pdf</a>
 101 &gt;:</p>
 102
 103 <p><blockquote>
 104
 105   <p>15. Merknad om H.264/AVC. Hvis Apple-programvaren inneholder
 106   funksjonalitet for AVC-koding og/eller AVC-dekoding, krever
 107   kommersiell bruk ekstra lisensiering og følgende gjelder:
 108   AVC-FUNKSJONALITETEN I DETTE PRODUKTET KAN KUN ANVENDES AV
 109   FORBRUKERE OG KUN FOR PERSONLIG OG IKKE- KOMMERSIELL BRUK TIL (i)
 110   KODING AV VIDEO I OVERENSSTEMMELSE MED AVC-STANDARDEN ("AVC-VIDEO")
 111   OG/ELLER (ii) DEKODING AV AVC-VIDEO SOM ER KODET AV EN FORBRUKER TIL
 112   PERSONLIG OG IKKE-KOMMERSIELL BRUK OG/ELLER DEKODING AV AVC-VIDEO
 113   FRA EN VIDEOLEVERANDØR SOM HAR LISENS TIL Å TILBY
 114   AVC-VIDEO. INFORMASJON OM ANNEN BRUK OG LISENSIERING KAN INNHENTES
 115   FRA MPEG LA L.L.C. SE HTTP://WWW.MPEGLA.COM.</p>
 116 </blockquote></p>
 117
 118 <p>Tilsvarende gjelder for andre programvarepakker, kamera, etc som
 119 bruker MPEG og H.264, at en må ha en avtale med MPEG-LA for å ha lov
 120 til å bruke programmet/utstyret hvis en skal lage noe annet enn
 121 private filmer og i ikke-kommersiell virksomhet.</p>
 122
 123 <p>Jeg er altså interessert i kopi av avtaler DSS har som gjør at en
 124 ikke er begrenset av de generelle bruksvilkårene som gjelder for
 125 utstyr som bruker MPEG og/eller H.264.</p>
 126 </blockquote></p>
 127
 128 <p>Nå venter jeg spent på svaret.  Jeg planlegger å blogge om svaret
 129 her.</p>
 130
 131       </div>
 132       <div class="tags">
 133
 134
 135         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 136
 137
 138       </div>
 139     </div>
 140     <div class="padding"></div>
 141
 142     <div class="entry">
 143       <div class="title">
 144         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</a>
 145       </div>
 146       <div class="date">
 147         26th April 2012
 148       </div>
 149       <div class="body">
 150         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
 151 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
 152 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
 153 that the video editor application included with
 154 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
 155 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
 156 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
 157
 158 <p><blockquote>
 159 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
 160 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
 161 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
 162 </blockquote></p>
 163
 164 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
 165
 166 <p><blockquote>
 167 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
 168 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
 169 </blockquote></p>
 170
 171 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
 172 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
 173 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
 174 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
 175 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
 176 video.  AMR is
 177 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
 178 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
 179 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
 180 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
 181 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
 182 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
 183 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
 184
 185 <p>I know why I prefer
 186 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
 187 standards</a> also for video.</p>
 188
 189       </div>
 190       <div class="tags">
 191
 192
 193         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 194
 195
 196       </div>
 197     </div>
 198     <div class="padding"></div>
 199
 200     <div class="entry">
 201       <div class="title">
 202         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
 203       </div>
 204       <div class="date">
 205         30th December 2010
 206       </div>
 207       <div class="body">
 208         <p>After trying to
 209 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
 210 Ogg Theora</a> to
 211 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
 212 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
 213 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
 214 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
 215 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
 216 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
 217 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
 218
 219 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
 220 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
 221 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
 222 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
 223 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
 224 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
 225 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
 226
 227 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
 228 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
 229
 230       </div>
 231       <div class="tags">
 232
 233
 234         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 235
 236
 237       </div>
 238     </div>
 239     <div class="padding"></div>
 240
 241     <div class="entry">
 242       <div class="title">
 243         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
 244       </div>
 245       <div class="date">
 246         27th December 2010
 247       </div>
 248       <div class="body">
 249         <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
 250 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
 251 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
 252 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
 253 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
 254 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
 255 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
 256 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
 257
 258 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
 259 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
 260 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
 261 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
 262 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
 263 page</a>.</p>
 264
 265 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
 266 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
 267 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
 268 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
 269 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
 270 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
 271 specification on equal terms.</p>
 272
 273 <blockquote>
 274
 275 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
 276 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
 277 open standard:</p>
 278
 279 <ul>
 280
 281 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
 282 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
 283 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
 284 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
 285
 286 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
 287 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
 288 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
 289 nominal fee.</li>
 290
 291 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
 292 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
 293 free basis.</li>
 294
 295 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
 296
 297 </ul>
 298 </blockquote>
 299
 300 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
 301 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
 302 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
 303 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
 304 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
 305 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
 306 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
 307
 308 <blockquote>
 309
 310 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
 311
 312 <ol>
 313
 314 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
 315 tilgængelig.</li>
 316
 317 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
 318 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
 319
 320 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
 321 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
 322
 323 </ol>
 324
 325 </blockquote>
 326
 327 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
 328 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
 329
 330 <blockquote>
 331
 332 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
 333
 334 <ol>
 335
 336 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
 337 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
 338
 339 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
 340 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
 341 Standard themselves;</li>
 342
 343 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
 344 any party or in any business model;</li>
 345
 346 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
 347 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
 348 parties;</li>
 349
 350 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
 351 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
 352 parties.</li>
 353
 354 </ol>
 355
 356 </blockquote>
 357
 358 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
 359 its
 360 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
 361 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
 362
 363 <blockquote>
 364 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
 365
 366 <ul>
 367
 368 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
 369   democratic:
 370
 371          <ul>
 372
 373          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
 374             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
 375             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
 376             and managed.</li>
 377
 378          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
 379             method, can be changed through input from all
 380             participants.</li>
 381
 382          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
 383             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
 384
 385          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
 386             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
 387
 388          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
 389             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
 390             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
 391
 392          </ul>
 393
 394 </li>
 395
 396 </ul>
 397
 398 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
 399 <ul>
 400
 401 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
 402   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
 403   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
 404   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
 405   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
 406
 407 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
 408   a technical or economic barriers</li>
 409
 410 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
 411   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
 412   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
 413   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
 414   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
 415   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
 416   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
 417   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
 418   intended to function.</li>
 419
 420 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
 421   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
 422   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
 423
 424 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
 425   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
 426   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
 427   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
 428   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
 429   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
 430   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
 431   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
 432
 433       <ul>
 434
 435       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
 436         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
 437         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
 438
 439       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
 440         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
 441         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
 442         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
 443
 444       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
 445         licensor</li>
 446
 447       </ul>
 448 </li>
 449
 450 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
 451   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
 452   or restricted licensing terms</li>
 453
 454 </ul>
 455
 456 </blockquote>
 457
 458 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
 459 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
 460 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
 461 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
 462 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
 463 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
 464 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
 465 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
 466 Standards.</p>
 467
 468       </div>
 469       <div class="tags">
 470
 471
 472         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 473
 474
 475       </div>
 476     </div>
 477     <div class="padding"></div>
 478
 479     <div class="entry">
 480       <div class="title">
 481         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a>
 482       </div>
 483       <div class="date">
 484         25th December 2010
 485       </div>
 486       <div class="body">
 487         <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
 488 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
 489
 490 <blockquote>
 491
 492 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
 493 as follows:</p>
 494
 495 <ol>
 496
 497 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
 498 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
 499 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
 500
 501 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
 502 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
 503 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
 504 parties.</li>
 505
 506 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
 507 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
 508 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
 509
 510 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
 511 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
 512
 513 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
 514
 515 </ol>
 516
 517 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
 518 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
 519 products based on the standard.</p>
 520 </blockquote>
 521
 522 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
 523 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
 524 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
 525 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
 526 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
 527 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
 528 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
 529 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
 530
 531 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
 532
 533 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
 534 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
 535 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
 536 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
 537 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
 538 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
 539 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
 540 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
 541 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
 542 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
 543 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
 544 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
 545 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
 546 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
 547
 548 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
 549
 550 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
 551 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
 552 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
 553 documentation indicating this.</p>
 554
 555 <p>According to
 556 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
 557 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
 558 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
 559 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
 560 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
 561 report is correct.</p>
 562
 563 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
 564
 565 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
 566 container format</a> and both the
 567 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
 568 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
 569 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
 570
 571 <blockquote>
 572
 573 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
 574 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
 575 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
 576 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
 577 specification compliance.
 578
 579 </blockquote>
 580
 581 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
 582 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
 583 this is the term:<p>
 584
 585 <blockquote>
 586
 587 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 588 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 589 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
 590 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
 591 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 592 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 593 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 594 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 595 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
 596 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
 597 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
 598 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
 599
 600 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 601 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
 602 </blockquote>
 603
 604 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
 605 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
 606 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
 607 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
 608 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
 609
 610 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
 611
 612 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
 613 Theora format.
 614 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
 615 and
 616 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
 617 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
 618 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
 619 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
 620 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
 621 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
 622 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
 623 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
 624
 625 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
 626
 627 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
 628
 629 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
 630
 631 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
 632 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
 633 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
 634 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
 635 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
 636 this.</p>
 637
 638 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
 639 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
 640
 641       </div>
 642       <div class="tags">
 643
 644
 645         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 646
 647
 648       </div>
 649     </div>
 650     <div class="padding"></div>
 651
 652     <div class="entry">
 653       <div class="title">
 654         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html">The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru</a>
 655       </div>
 656       <div class="date">
 657         25th December 2010
 658       </div>
 659       <div class="body">
 660         <p>A few days ago
 661 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
 662 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
 663 2.0 of
 664 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
 665 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
 666 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
 667 Nothing very surprising there, given
 668 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
 669 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
 670 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
 671 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
 672 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
 673 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
 674 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
 675 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
 676 standard definition from its content.</p>
 677
 678 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
 679 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
 680 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
 681 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
 682 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
 683 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
 684 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
 685 background information about that story is available in
 686 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
 687 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
 688
 689 <blockquote>
 690 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
 691 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
 692 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
 693
 694 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
 695
 696 <p>First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25, 2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.</p>
 697
 698 <p>While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.</p>
 699
 700 <p>With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call "open source software" is what the Bill defines as "free software", since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call "commercial software" is what the Bill defines as "proprietary" or "unfree", given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.</p>
 701
 702 <p>It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:</p>
 703
 704 <p>
 705 <ul>
 706 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
 707 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
 708 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
 709 </ul>
 710 </p>
 711
 712 <p>To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.</p>
 713
 714 <p>To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.</p>
 715
 716 <p>To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*. </p>
 717
 718 <p>In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.</p>
 719
 720 <p>In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.</p>
 721
 722
 723 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
 724 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
 725 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
 726 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
 727 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
 728 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
 729
 730 </p>
 731
 732 <p>What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.</p>
 733
 734 <p>We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.</p>
 735
 736 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
 737
 738 <p>Firstly, you point out that: "1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution."</p>
 739
 740 <p>This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.</p>
 741
 742 <p>The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No. 012-2001-PCM).</p>
 743
 744 <p>The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.</p>
 745
 746 <p>It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.</p>
 747
 748 <p>By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office "suite", under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.</p>
 749
 750 <p>To continue; you note that:" 2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies..."</p>
 751
 752 <p>This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding "non-competitive ... practices."</p>
 753
 754 <p>Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them "a priori", but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.</p>
 755
 756 <p>Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.</p>
 757
 758 <p>On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms' expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.</p>
 759
 760 <p>It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: "update your software to the new version" (at the user's expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider's judgment alone, are "old"; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays "trapped" in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).</p>
 761
 762 <p>You add: "3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector."</p>
 763
 764 <p>I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph 6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.</p>
 765
 766 <p>On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.</p>
 767
 768 <p>In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.</p>
 769
 770 <p>In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.</p>
 771
 772 <p>It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of "ad hoc" software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.</p>
 773
 774 <p>With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.</p>
 775
 776 <p>Your letter continues: "4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties."</p>
 777
 778 <p>Alluding in an abstract way to "the dangers this can bring", without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.</p>
 779
 780 <p>On security:</p>
 781
 782 <p>National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or "bugs" (in programmers' slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.</p>
 783
 784 <p>What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.</p>
 785
 786 <p>It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.</p>
 787
 788 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
 789
 790 <p>As you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the "End User License Agreement" of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS'', that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.</p>
 791
 792 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
 793
 794 <p>Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).</p>
 795
 796 <p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."</p>
 797
 798 <p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
 799
 800 <p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
 801
 802 <p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
 803
 804 <p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
 805
 806 <p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
 807
 808 <p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
 809
 810 <p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
 811
 812 <p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
 813
 814 <p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
 815
 816 <p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
 817
 818 <p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
 819
 820 <p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
 821
 822 <p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
 823
 824 <p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
 825
 826 <p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
 827
 828 <p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
 829
 830 <p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
 831
 832 <p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
 833
 834 <p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
 835
 836 <p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
 837
 838 <p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
 839
 840 <p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
 841
 842 <p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
 843
 844 <p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
 845
 846 <p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
 847
 848 <p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
 849
 850 <p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
 851
 852 <p>Cordially,<br>
 853 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
 854 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
 855 </blockquote>
 856
 857       </div>
 858       <div class="tags">
 859
 860
 861         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 862
 863
 864       </div>
 865     </div>
 866     <div class="padding"></div>
 867
 868     <div class="entry">
 869       <div class="title">
 870         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best___ikke_fortelle_noen_at_streaming_er_nedlasting___.html">Best å ikke fortelle noen at streaming er nedlasting...</a>
 871       </div>
 872       <div class="date">
 873         30th October 2010
 874       </div>
 875       <div class="body">
 876         <p>I dag la jeg inn en kommentar på en sak hos NRKBeta
 877 <a href="http://nrkbeta.no/2010/10/27/bakom-blindpassasjer-del-1/">om
 878 hvordan TV-serien Blindpassasjer ble laget</a> i forbindelse med at
 879 filmene NRK la ut ikke var tilgjengelig i et
 880 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">fritt og
 881 åpent format</a>.  Dette var det jeg skrev publiserte der 07:39.</p>
 882
 883 <p><blockquote>
 884 <p>"Vi fikk en kommentar rundt måten streamet innhold er beskyttet fra
 885 nedlasting.  Mange av oss som kan mer enn gjennomsnittet om systemer
 886 som dette, vet at det stort sett er mulig å lure ut ting med den
 887 nødvendige forkunnskapen."</p>
 888
 889 <p>Haha.  Å streame innhold er det samme som å laste ned innhold, så å
 890 beskytte en stream mot nedlasting er ikke mulig.  Å skrive noe slikt
 891 er å forlede leseren.</p>
 892
 893 <p>Med den bakgrunn blir forklaringen om at noen rettighetshavere kun
 894 vil tillate streaming men ikke nedlasting meningsløs.</p>
 895
 896 <p>Anbefaler forresten å lese
 897 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/10/drm-is-toxic-to-culture/index.htm">http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/10/drm-is-toxic-to-culture/index.htm</a>
 898 om hva som ville være konsekvensen hvis digitale avspillingssperrer
 899 (DRM) fungerte.  Det gjør de naturligvis ikke teknisk - det er jo
 900 derfor de må ha totalitære juridiske beskyttelsesmekanismer på plass,
 901 men det er skremmende hva samfunnet tillater og NRK er med på å bygge
 902 opp under.</p>
 903 </blockquote></p>
 904
 905 <p>Ca. 20 minutter senere får jeg følgende epost fra Anders Hofseth i
 906 NRKBeta:</p>
 907
 908 <p><blockquote>
 909 <p>From: Anders Hofseth &lt;XXX@gmail.com>
 910 <br>To: "pere@hungry.com" &lt;pere@hungry.com>
 911 <br>Cc: Eirik Solheim &lt;XXX@gmail.com>, Jon Ståle Carlsen &lt;XXX@gmail.com>, Henrik Lied &lt;XXX@gmail.com>
 912 <br>Subject: Re: [NRKbeta] Kommentar: "Bakom Blindpassasjer: del 1"
 913 <br>Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 07:58:44 +0200</p>
 914
 915 <p>Hei Petter.
 916 <br>Det du forsøker dra igang er egentlig en interessant diskusjon,
 917 men om vi skal kjøre den i kommentarfeltet her, vil vi kunne bli bedt
 918 om å fjerne blindpassasjer fra nett- tv og det vil heller ikke bli
 919 særlig lett å klarere ut noe annet arkivmateriale på lang tid.</p>
 920
 921 <p>Dette er en situasjon NRKbeta ikke ønsker, så kommentaren er
 922 fjernet og den delen av diskusjonen er avsluttet på nrkbeta, vi antar
 923 konsekvensene vi beskriver ikke er noe du ønsker heller...</p>
 924
 925 <p>Med hilsen,
 926 <br>-anders</p>
 927
 928 <p>Ring meg om noe er uklart: 95XXXXXXX</p>
 929 </blockquote></p>
 930
 931 <p>Ble så fascinert over denne holdningen, at jeg forfattet og sendte
 932 over følgende svar.  I og med at debatten er fjernet fra NRK Betas
 933 kommentarfelt, så velger jeg å publisere her på bloggen min i stedet.
 934 Har fjernet epostadresser og telefonnummer til de involverte, for å
 935 unngå at de tiltrekker seg uønskede direkte kontaktforsøk.</p>
 936
 937 <p><blockquote>
 938 <p>From: Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com>
 939 <br>To: Anders Hofseth &lt;XXX@gmail.com>
 940 <br>Cc: Eirik Solheim &lt;XXX@gmail.com>,
 941 <br>        Jon Ståle Carlsen &lt;XXX@gmail.com>,
 942 <br>        Henrik Lied &lt;XXX@gmail.com>
 943 <br>Subject: Re: [NRKbeta] Kommentar: "Bakom Blindpassasjer: del 1"
 944 <br>Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 08:24:34 +0200</p>
 945
 946 <p>[Anders Hofseth]
 947 <br>> Hei Petter.</p>
 948
 949 <p>Hei.</p>
 950
 951 <p>> Det du forsøker dra igang er egentlig en interessant diskusjon, men
 952 <br>> om vi skal kjøre den i kommentarfeltet her, vil vi kunne bli bedt om
 953 <br>> å fjerne blindpassasjer fra nett- tv og det vil heller ikke bli
 954 <br>> særlig lett å klarere ut noe annet arkivmateriale på lang tid.</p>
 955
 956 <p>Godt å se at du er enig i at dette er en interessant diskusjon.  Den
 957 vil nok fortsette en stund til.  :)</p>
 958
 959 <p>Må innrømme at jeg synes det er merkelig å lese at dere i NRK med
 960 vitende og vilje ønsker å forlede rettighetshaverne for å kunne
 961 fortsette å legge ut arkivmateriale.</p>
 962
 963 <p>Kommentarer og diskusjoner i bloggene til NRK Beta påvirker jo ikke
 964 faktum, som er at streaming er det samme som nedlasting, og at innhold
 965 som er lagt ut på nett kan lagres lokalt for avspilling når en ønsker
 966 det.</p>
 967
 968 <p>Det du sier er jo at klarering av arkivmateriale for publisering på
 969 web krever at en holder faktum skjult fra debattfeltet på NRKBeta.
 970 Det er ikke et argument som holder vann. :)</p>
 971
 972 <p>> Dette er en situasjon NRKbeta ikke ønsker, så kommentaren er fjernet
 973 <br>> og den delen av diskusjonen er avsluttet på nrkbeta, vi antar
 974 <br>> konsekvensene vi beskriver ikke er noe du ønsker heller...</p>
 975
 976 <p>Personlig ønsker jeg at NRK skal slutte å stikke hodet i sanden og
 977 heller være åpne på hvordan virkeligheten fungerer, samt ta opp kampen
 978 mot de som vil låse kulturen inne.  Jeg synes det er en skam at NRK
 979 godtar å forlede publikum.  Ville heller at NRK krever at innhold som
 980 skal sendes skal være uten bruksbegresninger og kan publiseres i
 981 formater som heller ikke har bruksbegresninger (bruksbegresningene til
 982 H.264 burde få varselbjellene i NRK til å ringe).</p>
 983
 984 <p>At NRK er med på DRM-tåkeleggingen og at det kommer feilaktive
 985 påstander om at "streaming beskytter mot nedlasting" som bare er egnet
 986 til å bygge opp om en myte som er skadelig for samfunnet som helhet.</p>
 987
 988 <p>Anbefaler &lt;URL:<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/</a>> og en
 989 titt på
 990 &lt;URL: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html</a> >.
 991 for å se hva slags bruksbegresninger H.264 innebærer.</p>
 992
 993 <p>Hvis dette innebærer at NRK må være åpne med at arkivmaterialet ikke
 994 kan brukes før rettighetshaverene også innser at de er med på å skade
 995 samfunnets kultur og kollektive hukommelse, så får en i hvert fall
 996 synliggjort konsekvensene og antagelig mer flammer på en debatt som er
 997 langt på overtid.</p>
 998
 999 <p>> Ring meg om noe er uklart: XXX</p>
1000
1001 <p>Intet uklart, men ikke imponert over måten dere håndterer debatten på.
1002 Hadde du i stedet kommet med et tilsvar i kommentarfeltet der en
1003 gjorde det klart at blindpassasjer-blogpostingen ikke var riktig sted
1004 for videre diskusjon hadde dere i mine øyne kommet fra det med
1005 ryggraden på plass.</p>
1006
1007 <p>PS: Interessant å se at NRK-ansatte ikke bruker NRK-epostadresser.</p>
1008
1009 <p>Som en liten avslutning, her er noen litt morsomme innslag om temaet.
1010 &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/CopyingIsNotTheft">http://www.archive.org/details/CopyingIsNotTheft</a> > og
1011 &lt;URL: <a href="http://patentabsurdity.com/">http://patentabsurdity.com/</a> > hadde vært noe å kringkaste på
1012 NRK1. :)</p>
1013
1014 <p>Vennlig hilsen,
1015 <br>--
1016 <br>Petter Reinholdtsen</p>
1017
1018       </div>
1019       <div class="tags">
1020
1021
1022         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1023
1024
1025       </div>
1026     </div>
1027     <div class="padding"></div>
1028
1029     <div class="entry">
1030       <div class="title">
1031         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS 130 digital camera</a>
1032       </div>
1033       <div class="date">
1034          9th September 2010
1035       </div>
1036       <div class="body">
1037         <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
1038 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
1039 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
1040 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
1041 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
1042 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
1043 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
1044 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
1045 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
1046
1047 <p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
1048 written:</p>
1049
1050 <blockquote>
1051 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
1052 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
1053 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
1054 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
1055 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p>
1056
1057 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
1058 standard.</p>
1059 </blockquote>
1060
1061 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
1062 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
1063 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
1064 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p>
1065
1066 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
1067 read
1068 "<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
1069 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
1070 MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
1071 "<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not
1072 The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
1073 the issue.  The solution is to support the
1074 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
1075 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg
1076 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
1077
1078       </div>
1079       <div class="tags">
1080
1081
1082         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1083
1084
1085       </div>
1086     </div>
1087     <div class="padding"></div>
1088
1089     <div class="entry">
1090       <div class="title">
1091         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fri_og__pen_standard__slik_Digistan_ser_det.html">Fri og åpen standard, slik Digistan ser det</a>
1092       </div>
1093       <div class="date">
1094         31st January 2009
1095       </div>
1096       <div class="body">
1097         <p>Det er mange ulike definisjoner om hva en åpen standard er for noe,
1098 og NUUG hadde <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">en
1099 pressemelding om dette sommeren 2005</a>.  Der ble definisjonen til
1100 <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">DKUUG</a>,
1101 <a href="http://europa.eu.int/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=19529">EU-kommissionens
1102 European Interoperability Framework ( side 9)</a> og
1103 <a href="http://www.teknologiradet.no/files/7polert_copy.htm">teknologirådet</a> omtalt.</p>
1104
1105 <p>Siden den gang har regjeringens standardiseringsråd dukket opp, og de
1106 ser ut til å har tatt utgangspunkt i EU-kommisjonens definisjon i
1107 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad/kampanjer/standardiseringsradet/arbeidsmetodikk.html?id=476407">sin
1108 arbeidsmetodikk</a>.  Personlig synes jeg det er en god ide, da
1109 kravene som stilles der gjør at alle markedsaktører får like vilkår,
1110 noe som kommer kundene til gode ved hjelp av økt konkurranse.</p>
1111
1112 <p>I sommer kom det en ny definisjon på banen.
1113 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/">Digistan</a> lanserte
1114 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">en
1115 definisjon på en fri og åpen standard</a>.  Jeg liker måten de bryter
1116 ut av diskusjonen om hva som kreves for å kalle noe en åpen standard
1117 ved å legge på et ord og poengtere at en standard som er både åpen og
1118 fri har noen spesielle krav.  Her er den definisjonen etter rask
1119 oversettelse fra engelsk til norsk av meg:</p>
1120
1121 <blockquote>
1122 <p><strong>Definisjonen av en fri og åpen standard</strong></p>
1123
1124 <p>Den digitale standardorganisasjonen definierer fri og åpen standard
1125 som følger:</p>
1126 <ul>
1127 <li>En fri og åpen standard er immun for leverandørinnlåsing i alle
1128 stadier av dens livssyklus.  Immuniteten fra leverandørinnlåsing gjør
1129 det mulig å fritt bruke, forbedre, stole på og utvide en standard over
1130 tid.</li>
1131 <li>Standarden er adoptert og vil bli vedlikeholdt av en ikke-kommersiell
1132 organisasjon, og dens pågående utvikling gjøres med en åpen
1133 beslutningsprosedyre som er tilgjengelig for alle som er interessert i
1134 å delta.</li>
1135 <li>Standarden er publisert og spesifikasjonsdokumentet er fritt
1136 tilgjengelig.  Det må være tillatt for alle å kopiere, distribuere og
1137 bruke den uten begresninger.</li>
1138 <li>Patentene som muligens gjelder (deler av) standarden er gjort
1139 ugjenkallelig tilgjengelig uten krav om betaling.</li>
1140 <li>Det er ingen begresninger i gjenbruk av standarden.</li>
1141 </ul>
1142 <p>Det økonomiske resultatet av en fri og åpen standard, som kan
1143 måles, er at det muliggjør perfekt konkurranse mellom leverandører av
1144 produkter basert på standarden.</p>
1145 </blockquote>
1146
1147 <p>(Tar gjerne imot forbedringer av oversettelsen.)</p>
1148
1149       </div>
1150       <div class="tags">
1151
1152
1153         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
1154
1155
1156       </div>
1157     </div>
1158     <div class="padding"></div>
1159
1160     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="digistan.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
1161     <div id="sidebar">
1162
1163
1164
1165 <h2>Archive</h2>
1166 <ul>
1167
1168 <li>2012
1169 <ul>
1170
1171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
1172
1173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
1174
1175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
1176
1177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
1178
1179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
1180
1181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
1182
1183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
1184
1185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
1186
1187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
1188
1189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (3)</a></li>
1190
1191 </ul></li>
1192
1193 <li>2011
1194 <ul>
1195
1196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
1197
1198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
1199
1200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
1201
1202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
1203
1204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
1205
1206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
1207
1208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
1209
1210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
1211
1212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
1213
1214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
1215
1216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
1217
1218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
1219
1220 </ul></li>
1221
1222 <li>2010
1223 <ul>
1224
1225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
1226
1227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
1228
1229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
1230
1231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
1232
1233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1234
1235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
1236
1237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
1238
1239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
1240
1241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
1242
1243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
1244
1245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
1246
1247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
1248
1249 </ul></li>
1250
1251 <li>2009
1252 <ul>
1253
1254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
1255
1256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
1257
1258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
1259
1260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
1261
1262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1263
1264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
1265
1266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
1267
1268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
1269
1270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
1271
1272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
1273
1274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
1275
1276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
1277
1278 </ul></li>
1279
1280 <li>2008
1281 <ul>
1282
1283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
1284
1285 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
1286
1287 </ul></li>
1288
1289 </ul>
1290
1291
1292
1293 <h2>Tags</h2>
1294 <ul>
1295
1296  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
1297
1298  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
1299
1300  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
1301
1302  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
1303
1304  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
1305
1306  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
1307
1308  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (57)</a></li>
1309
1310  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (113)</a></li>
1311
1312  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (9)</a></li>
1313
1314  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (7)</a></li>
1315
1316  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
1317
1318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (153)</a></li>
1319
1320  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (17)</a></li>
1321
1322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
1323
1324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (8)</a></li>
1325
1326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (8)</a></li>
1327
1328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (31)</a></li>
1329
1330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (17)</a></li>
1331
1332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
1333
1334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
1335
1336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
1337
1338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
1339
1340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (199)</a></li>
1341
1342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (144)</a></li>
1343
1344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (4)</a></li>
1345
1346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
1347
1348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (35)</a></li>
1349
1350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (49)</a></li>
1351
1352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
1353
1354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
1355
1356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
1357
1358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
1359
1360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
1361
1362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
1363
1364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
1365
1366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (23)</a></li>
1367
1368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
1369
1370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (2)</a></li>
1371
1372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (38)</a></li>
1373
1374  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (2)</a></li>
1375
1376  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (4)</a></li>
1377
1378  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (10)</a></li>
1379
1380  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
1381
1382  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (34)</a></li>
1383
1384  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (3)</a></li>
1385
1386  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (25)</a></li>
1387
1388 </ul>
1389
1390
1391     </div>
1392     <p style="text-align: right">
1393  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4</a>
1394 </p>
1395
1396   </body>
1397 </html>