blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9
  10
  11   </head>
  12   <body>
  13     <div class="title">
  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</div>
  24       <div class="date">19th April 2012</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>Here in Norway, the
  26 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
  27 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
  28 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
  29 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
  30 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
  31 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
  32 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
  33 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
  34 on the same level.</p>
  35
  36 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
  37 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
  38 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
  39 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
  40 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
  41 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
  42 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
  43 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
  44 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
  45 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
  46 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
  47 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
  48 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
  49 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
  50 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
  51 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
  52 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
  53 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
  54
  55 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
  56 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
  57 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
  58 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
  59 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
  60 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
  61 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
  62 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
  63
  64 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
  65 from Simon Phipps
  66 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
  67 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
  68
  69 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
  70 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
  71 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
  72 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
  73 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
  74 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
  75 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
  76 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
  77 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
  78 </div>
  79
  80       <div class="tags">Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</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>.</div>
  81
  82
  83     </div>
  84
  85
  86
  87
  88     <div id="sidebar">
  89
  90
  91
  92 <h2>Archive</h2>
  93 <ul>
  94
  95 <li>2015
  96 <ul>
  97
  98 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
  99
 100 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 101
 102 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
 103
 104 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
 105
 106 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 107
 108 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
 109
 110 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
 111
 112 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 113
 114 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
 115
 116 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 117
 118 </ul></li>
 119
 120 <li>2014
 121 <ul>
 122
 123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 124
 125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
 126
 127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
 128
 129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 130
 131 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
 132
 133 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 134
 135 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
 136
 137 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 138
 139 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 140
 141 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
 142
 143 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 144
 145 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
 146
 147 </ul></li>
 148
 149 <li>2013
 150 <ul>
 151
 152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 153
 154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 155
 156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 157
 158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
 159
 160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 161
 162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
 163
 164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 165
 166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 167
 168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 169
 170 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 171
 172 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
 173
 174 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 175
 176 </ul></li>
 177
 178 <li>2012
 179 <ul>
 180
 181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 182
 183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 184
 185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 186
 187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 188
 189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 190
 191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 192
 193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 194
 195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 196
 197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 198
 199 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 200
 201 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 202
 203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 204
 205 </ul></li>
 206
 207 <li>2011
 208 <ul>
 209
 210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 211
 212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 213
 214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 215
 216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 217
 218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 219
 220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 221
 222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 223
 224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 225
 226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 227
 228 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 229
 230 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 231
 232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 233
 234 </ul></li>
 235
 236 <li>2010
 237 <ul>
 238
 239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 240
 241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 242
 243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 244
 245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 246
 247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 248
 249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 250
 251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 252
 253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 254
 255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 256
 257 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 258
 259 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 260
 261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 262
 263 </ul></li>
 264
 265 <li>2009
 266 <ul>
 267
 268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 269
 270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 271
 272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 273
 274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 275
 276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 277
 278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 279
 280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 281
 282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 283
 284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 285
 286 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 287
 288 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 289
 290 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 291
 292 </ul></li>
 293
 294 <li>2008
 295 <ul>
 296
 297 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 298
 299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 300
 301 </ul></li>
 302
 303 </ul>
 304
 305
 306
 307 <h2>Tags</h2>
 308 <ul>
 309
 310  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 311
 312  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 313
 314  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 315
 316  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 317
 318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
 319
 320  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
 321
 322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 323
 324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
 325
 326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (112)</a></li>
 327
 328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (153)</a></li>
 329
 330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
 331
 332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
 333
 334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (20)</a></li>
 335
 336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 337
 338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (292)</a></li>
 339
 340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
 341
 342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 343
 344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (22)</a></li>
 345
 346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
 347
 348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
 349
 350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
 351
 352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
 353
 354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (10)</a></li>
 355
 356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
 357
 358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
 359
 360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
 361
 362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
 363
 364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 365
 366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
 367
 368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (36)</a></li>
 369
 370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (267)</a></li>
 371
 372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (177)</a></li>
 373
 374  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (20)</a></li>
 375
 376  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 377
 378  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (54)</a></li>
 379
 380  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (88)</a></li>
 381
 382  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 383
 384  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
 385
 386  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 387
 388  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
 389
 390  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
 391
 392  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 393
 394  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 395
 396  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 397
 398  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (43)</a></li>
 399
 400  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 401
 402  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
 403
 404  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (48)</a></li>
 405
 406  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
 407
 408  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
 409
 410  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (35)</a></li>
 411
 412  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
 413
 414  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
 415
 416  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
 417
 418  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (54)</a></li>
 419
 420  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 421
 422  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (37)</a></li>
 423
 424 </ul>
 425
 426
 427     </div>
 428     <p style="text-align: right">
 429  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
 430 </p>
 431
 432   </body>
 433 </html>