[Air-l] Fwd: A Call to Action in OASIS

[jeremy hunsinger]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com>
> Date: February 22, 2005 12:35:14 PM EST
> To: ipr-wg at ietf.org
> Subject: A Call to Action in OASIS
> Reply-To: lrosen at rosenlaw.com
>
> A Call to Action in OASIS
>
> The free and open source software community has long demanded that 
> industry
> standards be freely available to all to implement without patent or 
> other
> licensing encumbrances. Open standards are essential for free software 
> and
> open source to thrive.
>
> Now OASIS, a major industry consortium that produces e-business and Web
> services standards, has adopted a patent policy that threatens to 
> undermine
> our development and licensing model. This patent policy (available, 
> grouped
> together with other unrelated legal issues, in
> http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.php) permits 
> standards to
> be based upon so-called "reasonable and non-discriminatory" patent 
> license
> terms--terms which invariably and unreasonably discriminate against 
> open
> source and free software to the point of prohibiting them entirely. It 
> would
> lead to the adoption of standards that cannot be implemented in open 
> source
> and free software, that cannot be distributed under our licenses. 
> While the
> policy includes a provision for royalty-free standards, it is a 
> secondary
> option, which will have little effect if a few OASIS members with 
> patents
> can ensure it is not used. The OASIS patent policy will encourage large
> patent holders to negotiate private arrangements among themselves, 
> locking
> out all free software and open source developers.
>
> This is not a new issue for us. We fought hard for a royalty-free 
> patent
> policy in W3C and encouraged that standards organization to commit its
> members to open standards. But some W3C member companies, steadfast
> opponents of software freedom, moved their efforts to OASIS. Without
> consulting the free software/open source community, they produced a 
> patent
> policy designed so that we cannot live with it.
>
> We ask you to stand with us in opposition to the OASIS patent policy. 
> Do not
> implement OASIS standards that aren't open. Demand that OASIS revise 
> its
> policies. If you are an OASIS member, do not participate in any working
> group that allows encumbered standards that cannot be implemented in 
> open
> source and free software.
>
> Please send email to open at rosenlaw.com to indicate your support. We 
> will
> forward your comments to the proper authorities at OASIS.
>
> If we stand united in opposition to this unacceptable patent policy, 
> we can
> persuade OASIS to change it.
>
> /signed/
> Lawrence Rosen
> Bruce Perens
> Richard Stallman
> Lawrence Lessig
> Eben Moglen
> Marten Mickos
> John Weathersby
> John Terpstra
> Tim O'Reilly
> Tony Stanco
> Don Marti
> Michael Tiemann
> Andrew Aitken
> Karen Copenhaver
> Doug Levin
> Dan Ravicher
> Larry Augustin
> Mitchell Kapor
> Russell Nelson
> Guido van Rossum
> Daniel Quinlan
> Murugan Pal
> Stuart Cohen
> Danese Cooper
> Eric Raymond
> Mark Webbink
> Ken Coar
> Doc Searls
> Brian Behlendorf
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ipr-wg mailing list
> Ipr-wg at ietf.org
> https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipr-wg
>
>
Jeremy Hunsinger
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
() ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail
/\ - against microsoft attachments