US rightsholder lobby group puts pressure on EU Commissioners in attempt to stifle open standards policies

Email received today (2010-10-12)

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Dear signatory of the OOXML petition,

last week a U.S. rightsholder lobby group Business Software Alliance (BSA) got hold of confidential EU pre-release drafts of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) 2.0. They put pressure on several EU-Commissioners in an attempt to stifle once again “open standards” policies. The European Interoperability Framework is expected to be presented this week together with a communication to the European Parliament and the Council.

We are sick and tired of these undue interventions from US lobbyists in the internal affairs of our states. We are embarrassed that they are able to obtain pre-release documents while the European public is denied access. Neither have our democratic representatives, the Members of the European Parliament considered the proposals from the EU-Commission while BSA-lobbyist Francisco Mingorance talks to the press about yellow perils inside the European Interoperability Framework 2.0 [1].

The 2004 European Interoperability Framework (EIF) 1.0 got under heavy rightsholder attack because it defined the term “Open Standards” as it is used by digital professionals. “Open standards” do not require licensing and can be implemented freely, by proprietary and GPL software.

The FFII calls on European policy makers to consider the Hague Declaration principles [2] and preserve a true definition of open standards for their egovernment services. It is our genuine right to communicate as citizens with our administration, and to do so without technological discrimination and without patent toll gates. Let us defend the openness of Europe!

Kind regards

Alberto Barrionuevo
FFII Open Standards working group

[1] http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/eu-push-patent-free-egovernment-news-498694
[2] http://www.digistan.org/hague-declaration

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