== 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
== 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.