PRESS RELEASE — [ Europe / Economy / Innovation ]
=========================================
Brussels, 1 August 2007 — The Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure (FFII) warns that two major decisions in September will
define the future of interoperability in the key desktop computing
market.FFII President Pieter Hintjens explains: "Around the world, national
boards of ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) are
voting on a proposal to accept 'Ecma 376', Microsoft's Office format,
as an international standard. The deadline is 2 September. If ISO
approves this format, we believe the desktop market will be locked in
to this proprietary, patented format for decades, and pay the price of
monopoly."The FFII and others have been working with ISO bodies to clarify the
problems in the format. Hintjens says, "the format has real problems,
which must be corrected before, not after, a vote. The most severe of
these problems is the dependency on Microsoft patents, which will
block interoperability, the only purpose of a new standard."On 17 September the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules on
Microsoft's appeal against a Euro 497 million fine by the European
Commission, which found the software giant had abused its dominant
position, blocking other firms from interoperating with its products.
If the ECJ rules against the software firm, it will be forced to open
its formats to competitors.However, the FFII warns that Microsoft's patents let it run around the
Commission. Hintjens concludes, "software patents make a mockery of
competition law. They give patent owners a veto over use of a claimed
'invention'. Even with the ISO label, the consumer will be locked in.
And this is the first of a gang of patented formats that Microsoft is
pushing through ISO. It is ironic that while the Commission works to
level the playing field using anti-trust law, the international
standards process is being used to tilt it again, using software
patents."=========================================
Background Information
=========================================Grokdoc explains why ISO standardisation of Ecma 376 would extend
Microsoft's monopoly: "The ISO standardization of Ecma 376 in its
present state would result in an international standard that no vendor
other than Microsoft could fully implement, For that reason, Ecma 376
would have "the effect of" granting Microsoft an exclusive monopoly
over the high-fidelity migration of documents stored in its legacy
file formats to Ecma 376 formats, a very substantial obstacle to
international trade. For example, should a government procurement
tender request bids for "an office software suite fully implementing
Ecma 376 and capable of full fidelity in migrating any Microsoft
Office file format from versions 97 through 2007 to Ecma 376," no
vendor other than Microsoft could or would have a product meeting the
tender's specification.The FFII has worked to educate ISO national boards and ensure that
they participate in a fair voting process that properly represents the
community. The FFII is asking boards to vote "no" until the faults in
Ecma 376 are properly corrected. An FFII petition to collect support
for this campaign has collected more than 26,000 supporters.=========================================
Links
=========================================
- Grokdoc: objections to the OOXML standard proposal
- NoOOXML petition
- Permanent link to this press release
=========================================
Contact information
=========================================Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-2-414 84 03
bhenrion at ffii.org
(French/English)=========================================
About the FFII
=========================================The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in over thirty
countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the
public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards.
More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have
entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions
concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.
September double-strike for interoperability
Summary:
In a press release, the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) warns that the OOXML vote is one of only two major decisions in September that will define the future of interoperability in the key desktop computing market.
