A who's who of the open source and free-software movements on Tuesday took aim at the OASIS group, escalating pressure for mandatory royalty-free licensing policies with calls for a boycott of its specifications.
Open source and free-software advocates including Mitch Kapor, Lawrence Lessig, Tim O'Reilly, Bruce Perens, Eric Raymond, Lawrence Rosen, Doc Searls and Richard Stallman signed an email urging the community not to implement certain specifications sent out by OASIS. OASIS this month revised its patent policy in a way it claimed offers better options for open source software development.
"We ask you to stand with us in opposition to the OASIS patent policy," states the email, which was sent on Tuesday morning. "Do not implement OASIS standards that aren't open. Demand that OASIS revise its policies. If you are an OASIS member, do not participate in any working group that allows encumbered standards that cannot be implemented in open source and free software."
In an interview, one signatory said the campaign would not target individual specifications, but the organisation as a whole.
"We want organisations like OASIS to develop policies so any group that wants to use an industry standard can know in advance whether or not someone's going to come along and reach into their pocketbook," said Rosen, a lawyer with Rosenlaw & Einschlag and author of Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law.
OASIS defended its revised policy and launched a counterattack against the email campaign.
"This policy from OASIS is as strong as the W3C policy in terms of specifying work to be royalty-free," said OASIS CEO Patrick Gannon in an interview. "Our policy states that standards may incorporate work that is patented, but that they have to disclose it. And in almost all cases, that results in a royalty-free licence for that work."
OASIS revised its policy to specify three modes for standards work: RAND, or reasonable and nondiscriminatory licensing; RF, or royalty-free, on RAND terms; or RF on limited terms.
Gannon claimed that people who had signed the email hadn't read the policy.
"Does it represent an accurate description of our policy? Absolutely not," Gannon said. "Have these people read the policy? Or are they just reacting to someone's claim? Had any of these people come to us, we would have been more than happy to open a dialogue. This isn't the best way to open a dialogue between communities, through the press."
Gannon said that even without the new policy, OASIS standards with royalties attached to them are comparatively few.
Out of 20 formalised OASIS standards, Gannon said he was not aware of any that required a royalty to implement them. Fewer than a half dozen of the 101 specifications still working their way though committee had royalties, he said.
