[ILUG] on the MS ISO standard thing

[Justin Mason]

Gareth Eason writes:
> 
> 	Hi,
> 
> 	Thanks to all who replied - the general consensus appears to be that
> the responsible thing is to draft and send a letter. To this end, I have
> come up with the following draft.
> 
> 	1. I'm relatively new to this so please provide me with comments and
> feedback on the draft. I'm happy to change it to ensure it conveys the
> appropriate feelings of the group as a whole.
> 
> 	2. Can someone please let me know who the best person / people /
> address(es) are to send this to?

Once my mate gets back to me with that, I'll pass it on.  Thanks!

--j.

> 	Best regards,
> 	-->Gar
> 
> Irish Linux User Group,
> <Some Contact Address for ILUG>
> 24th Jan, 2007
> 
> Re: Objections to JTC-1 Fast-Track Processing of the ECMA-376 Specification
> 
> 	To whom it may concern,
> 
> 	I, Gareth Eason, write on behalf of the committee and members of the
> Irish Linux User Group to voice our collective concern regarding the
> Fast-Track Processing of the ECMA 376 Specification by the ISO JTC-1
> committee.
> 
> 	As more and more of our critical paperwork gets stored in electronic
> form, the ISO body recognise the requirement for an open standard for
> storing this data – one with which multiple software vendors may comply.
> This avoids a monopoly situation emerging whereby a single supplier may
> control access to information simply because only they can understand
> the format it is stored in. This is particularly true for legacy
> documents – old documents produced and 'saved' by an older version of
> software.
> 
> 	As a predominantly technical body of people within Ireland, we feel it
> important to highlight our concerns to the fast-track processing of this
> proposed standard for the following reasons:
> The ECMA specification runs to some 6,000 pages, impossible to review in
> any meaningful fashion within the 30 days permitted.
> The concept of the standard potentially conflicts with the ISO body's
> own stated goal of “one standard, one test, and one conformity
> assessment procedure accepted everywhere.” ECMA has been publicly slated
> as an alternative to an already existing and ratified open document
> standard, ISO/IEC 26300:2006.
> There appears to be internal inconsistencies within the proposed
> standard and significant conflicts with existing ratified ISO standards,
> including ISO8601 (Representation of Dates and Times), ISO639 (Codes for
> the representation of Names and Languages), ISO/IEC 8632 (Computer
> Graphics Metafiles) and more.
> There are numerous references to proprietary applications and behaviours
> which may be impossible to reproduce without potentially infringing
> patents granted to, in particular, Microsoft. No documentation as to
> proprietary behaviours is offered in many cases and no legal
> indemnification appears to be granted for either reverse engineering or
> re-implementation of these behaviours. This renders it legally and
> technically impossible for any organisation other that Microsoft to
> implement this standard, essentially prohibiting competition – the
> antithesis of ISO standards.
> 
> 	We would suggest that it is inappropriate to fast-track the processing
> of this proposed ECMA 376 standard and that it should be diverted from
> its present fast-track processing and should be remanded to Ecma
> International for: (i) harmonization with ISO/IEC 26300:2006, the
> OpenDocument standard; and numerous other standards that it contradicts;
> (ii) development of more suitable intellectual property documents that
> actually grant rights to implement the specification.
> 
> 	More information on this proposal, and an analysis to date of the
> document can be found at
> http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections
> 
> 	Yours faithfully,
> 
> 
> 	Gareth Eason B.Eng, MIET, (Chairperson) , for an on behalf of the Irish
> Linux User Group.
> 
> -- 
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