[FSFE PR][EN] Open Standards in Europe: FSFE puts facts against BSA's fictions

[FSFE]

== Open Standards in Europe: FSFE puts facts against BSA's fictions ==

[Permanent URL: http://www.fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20101016-01.en.html]

18 October 2010, 12:30, Berlin, Germany

On Friday FSFE sent a letter to the European Commission to support
Open Standards and interoperability. In the drawn-out battle to retain
at least a weak recommendation for Open Standards in the revised
European Interoperability Framework, FSFE has countered a leaked
letter by the lobby group Business Software Alliance with its own
thorough analysis of the relation between standards and patents.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is pressuring the European
Commission to remove the last vestiges of support for Open Standards
from the latest version of the EU's interoperability recommendations,
the European Interoperability Framework.

"We trust that the European Commission won't be swayed by such a blunt
attempt to capture the European Software market for a single interest
group", says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software
Foundation Europe. "The BSA's letter to the Commission doesn't even
represent a consensus among the group's own members".

Open Standards, which can be implemented in Free Software, are key to
interoperability in Europe. FSFE on Thursday obtained a copy of a
letter sent to the Commission by the BSA, analysed the BSA's claims,
and made both the analysis and the BSA's letter available on its
website.


The leaked Business Software Alliance letter to the European Commission:
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-letter-ec.pdf

Letter of analysis sent by FSFE to the Commission in response:
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-eif-letter-fsfe-response.pdf

Our analysis of the BSA's letter on-line:
http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/bsa-letter-analysis.html

Open Standards:
http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.en.html


== Contacts ==

Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.org

Karsten Gerloff, President
+49-176-96904298

http://www.fsfe.org/contact/


== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-
governmental organisation active in many European countries and 
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines 
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in 
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the 
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study, 
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issue 
of the FSFE.

http://fsfe.org