Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
setting together all the pieces. This time I present to you Andreas
Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
-years. We was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
+years. He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
up in the recently released
<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
</div>
<div class="padding"></div>
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 19th April 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>Here in Norway, the
+<a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
+Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
+a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
+standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
+government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made
+an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
+standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
+to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete
+on the same level.</p>
+
+<p>But recently, some standards with RAND
+(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
+And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
+directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
+standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
+implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
+user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
+willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In
+practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
+be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By
+definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
+So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
+And given that people will use the software without handing any money
+to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
+software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
+to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result
+in these situations is that free software are locked out from
+implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
+
+<p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
+standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
+how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free
+software developers are working in a global marked, it does not really
+help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
+in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
+I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
+attention to these issues in the future.</p>
+
+<p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
+from Simon Phipps
+(<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
+Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <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>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
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<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
-<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (7)</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (8)</a></li>
</ul></li>
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+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (123)</a></li>
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+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (122)</a></li>
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+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (25)</a></li>
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- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (23)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (24)</a></li>
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