La consultation publique de la Commission européeenne
La Commission européenne a lancé de juillet 2009 au 15 septembre 2009 une consultation intitulée Moderniser la normalisation des TIC dans l'Union européenne : la bonne voie [5]. La consultation étant close seule la version PDF du questionnaire est disponible [6].
Le questionnaire portait principalement sur le contenu du Livre Blanc (format PDF) [7] qui concerne une réorientation de la stratégie politique de la Commission européenne en matière de normalisation afin de mieux répondre aux besoins de l'industrie et la société.
Pour toute information complémentaire vous pouvez consulter le site http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/standards/ict_index_en.htm [8]
Réponses de l'April
Nous avons choisi de répondre aux questions suivantes (les réponses en sont anglais car le questionnaire était disponible dans cette langue):
(a) Do you agree that the attributes for standards to be associated with EU legislation and policies should be integrated in the future ICT standardisation policy as set out in section 2.1 of the White Paper? (optional) : No.(b) Do you agree that the public procurement provisions of CD 87/95 should be updated so that public authorities can more easily acquire ICT services, applications and products that fulfil their specific requirements and in particular an adequate level of interoperability? (optional) : Yes.
(c) Do you agree with the need to clarify that when they are defined within the context of ICT strategies, architectures and interoperability frameworks, the implementation of standardised interfaces can be made a requirement in public procurement procedures, provided the principles of openness, fairness, objectivity and non-discrimination and the public procurement directives are applied? (optional) : Yes.
(g) Do you agree that ICT standards developing organisations should, subject to competition law and respecting the owner's IPR: implement clear, transparent and balanced IPR policies which do not discriminate and allow competition among different business models, ensure the effectiveness of procedures for IPR disclosures, and consider a declaration of the most restrictive licensing terms, possibly including the (maximum) royalty rates before adoption of a standard as a potential route to providing more predictability and transparency? (optional) : No.
Commentaires complétant nos réponses:
a) and g) : As far as standards are concerned, no royalties should be due and no IPR conditions should be set for the implementation of an ICT standard. It is contradictory with the very model of Free Software (free copy, study, modification and distribution of the software) and discriminatory towards all non-commercial business models.
b) an appropriate interoperability level should imply that APIs and documentation are freely accessible to all without restriction, and that no royalties are due to interoperate with a third party format/piece of software.