

Charles-H. Schulz of Document Foundation on open standards and FRAND terms - EdwardQ
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/interview-with-charles-h-schulz-on-open-standards/index.htm

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dalke
I have been very confused about what an "open standard" means. I know that
part of the issue is that "open" has so many different meanings. This
interview with Schulz helped clarify one of my confusions; the difference
between a 'standard' and a 'specification.'

Some things I still don't understand: 1) an open standard must be royalty-
free, but does it need to be available to others for no charge? Is it okay for
there to be a fixed charge? What about one based on the size of the
organization doing the purchase? (I'm thinking of POSIX here.)

2) "An open standard does not come with such hurdles as it comes with no legal
barriers". How does that tie in with trademarks? Can I say "you can't say you
meet standard X unless you pass the X conformance suite"?

3) Does an open specification need to be open to forking? That is, one legal
barrier to upgrading a specification is the copyright protection on the
previous spec. If some new group wants to implement standard X.2, it would be
easier to start with X.1's text and modify a few places, rather than making a
new spec from scratch, especially as the new group might mistranslate a couple
of nuances that way. But most standards, e.g., the IETF ones, prohibit that
sort of modification of existing specs.

