Open Document Format - Legal, Decent - Honest
Open Document Format - Legal, Decent - Honest
July 17th, 2006: All goes well for the Open Document Alliance as Google joins and the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) declares it legal for distribution across a host of Open Source software.
It has been a rich period for the Open Document Alliance and its XML-based Open Document file format. Google has joined the Alliance. Microsoft has announced that is happy for developers to create translation tools to enable Open Document Format (ODF) files to be read into the lastest version of Office. And the legal 'department' of the Free Software Federation (FSF) has declared the format: "On the factual basis described, and subject to reservations, it is our opinion that ODF, as standardized and licensed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information (OASIS), is free of legal encumbrances that would prevent its use in free and open source software, as distributed under licenses authored by Apache and the FSF".
While Google's support for the format comes as little or no surprise - it already uses it in its online Writely - it is certainly a boost. This boost may, however, have as much to do with Microsoft's apparently open-hearted declaration that ODF files will be openable within Office. This does not mean that ODF files will be standardised for output from Office, of course.
The Software Freedom Law Center's (sic) opinion is:
'On the basis of the facts presented, for the reasons given, and with the reservations and limitations noted, it is our opinion that:
1. Under the relevant OASIS patent policy, all Essential Claims held by OASIS Technical Committee Obligated Members are available to all implementors of ODF on terms compatible with free and open source software licenses.
2. Sun's license terms for access to its Essential Claims are fully compatible with free and open source software licensing.
• Sun's terms are compatible with contribution and licensing under the policies and license of the Apache Software Foundation.
• Sun's terms are not in conflict with Section 7 of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License (GPL), and are not otherwise incompatible with the GPL.'
The mention of Sun refers to Sun Microsystems - the company that owns the copyright to the document format deriving from its purchase of StarOffice.
What this all means, in effect, is that the it is unlikely (although not impossible) for the ODF to become the absolute standard across Open Source developments that fall under the GPL. With GPL (version 2) providing the licensing for the Linux operating system, this standardisation provides confidence for organisations seeking to deploy, for example, Open Office under Linux.