EU Experiences Setback in Open Source

January 7, 2013

Legal issues directly affect the success of different technologies. This is especially true when government contracts are on the line, as governments often provide the largest customer base for certain software applications. Unfortunately, recent legal issues in the European Union (EU) are stunting the growth of open source technologies throughout the region. Glyn Moody’s Open Enterprise blog covers the issue in, “European Commission’s Low Attack on Open Source.”

Moody states the source of the problem, FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory):

“Again, as long-suffering readers may recall, the original European Interoperability Framework also required royalty-free licensing, but what was doubtless a pretty intense wave of lobbying in Brussels overturned that, and EIF v2 ended up pushing FRAND, which effectively locks out open source – the whole point of the exercise.”

Moody goes on to explain that locking out open source stunts creativity and development, leaving the EU to depend on the leading open source technology coming out of the US. He continues:

“It confirms once more that the European Commission is not serious about open source, and has no intention of doing anything meaningful to help it grow in Europe, despite some soothing noises to the contrary. Sadly, this pretty much sums up what’s happened in 2012 as far as support for open source in the European Union is concerned.”

The EU is definitely suffering in response to this punitive legal viewpoint. American open source software, such as the industry-leading LucidWorks, provides a solid foundation for every enterprise to make the most of its data resources. Whether it is tackling Big Data or simply organizing an organization’s intranet, open source is a necessary enterprise tool. Furthermore, open source technologies of all types support innovation and advancement in the economy, a benefit the EU has closed the door on.

Emily Rae Aldridge, January 07, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Legal matters, News, Open source

Comments

2 Responses to “EU Experiences Setback in Open Source”

European Commission’s Low Attack on Open Source [TMs and Transparency] « Another Word For It on January 7th, 2013 7:22 am

[…] I first saw this at: EU Experiences Setback in Open Source. […]
ConsultRamy on January 7th, 2013 8:08 am

RT @BeyondSearch: EU Experiences Setback in Open Source: http://t.co/smMU2PDE

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.