[Openstandaarden] translation of the background explanations in NL

[David GLAUDE]

Reinier Bakels wrote:

> Incidently, in my view the distinction between "de facto" and "de jure"
> standards is nonsence. There are a few legally binding standards, not in IT
> but for building construction, related to safety. But otherwise the term "de
> jure" is just utterly confusing. One can make several distincions in
> standards (created by a single party or a committee? maintained
> democratically? created intentionally as a standard or accepted as such in
> practice?), but in the end it is the public acceptance that counts. Internet
> standards are somewhere in the middle: they are typically created by a
> single party (no "committee design"!), they can be changed more or less
> democratically, and they are (of course) in no way imposed: whether an
> Internet standard becomes popular is up to the "market". (Surprisingly, even
> real lawmaking is not as formal a process as most people believe: law is not
> the same as a statute (written law), and courts may augment and deviate from
> written law, and even develop law if there is no written law in a certain
> area.)

However, for call for tender made by public administration and 
especially for european call for tender (when what you order cost more 
than X) you must make reference to some standard... european standard.

So not all standard are equal as far as I know.

Now more and more, countries take legislation to mandate Open Format 
and/or Free Software for every state aquisition and every exchange with 
the public.

Openstandaarden.be definition:
"Een open standaard is een specificatie die gratis beschikbaar is, 
volledig geimplementeerd kan worden, niet door patenten of andere 
juridische aspecten beperkt is en die door een standaardenorganisatie 
goedgekeurd is."
http://www.openstandaarden.be/node/view/6

Please tell me that most IEEE, ISO, ... standard are not Open Standard 
per your definition! I don't think any of those are available on-line 
for free.

It become more and more a problem to properly define what is an Open 
Format or Open Standard. Like PDF seems to be widely accepted, however 
when you start Acrobat, you get to see a hudge list of patent for 
various extentions of the format.

Another issue is the privatisation of the law. The law say "To build an 
house you must follow that standard." Now who own the standard? Is the 
standard as available for free and free of copyright as the law?

I think the issue was raised a few years ago in the US for some 
electrical standard or else.

David GLAUDE

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