On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:35:08 +1100, Matt Giuca <[email protected]> wrote:
They intend to introduce FRAND ("fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory")
patent licensing law, which would mean you can't simply withhold patent
licenses, you need to license them to anyone who wants them under
reasonable terms. But they intend to exclude free software from the
definition.
The proposal concerns the adoption of European standards. The proposal allows
for the adoption of patent encumbered standards, and while they do not intend
to adopt standards where the patent licences can be withheld, they still allow
the patent holders to charge licence fees from anyone who uses or distributes
software that implements the standard, and discriminate against those who
cannot pay the fees.
This disadvantages free/libre software, because it enforces a particular
distribution model that is incompatible with the basic freedoms.
The best solution is to scrap software patents so that standards are not compromised. At
worst, if there are software patents, a government should only adopt open standards where
the patent holders are prevented from asserting their patent rights, otherwise they can
hardly call them "open standards".
Glenn
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