EU: Researcher hints at WTO conflict over ISO approval for OOXML
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| Egyedi, a researcher of technical standards, at the Technical University in
| Delft, the Netherlands, doubts whether ISO should have a taken into
| consideration a second standard for electronic documents at all. ISO approved
| the Open Document Format ODF in 2006, says Egyedi: "What are we to do with a
| second standard, which is overlapping the first? This conflicts with rules of
| the World Trade Organisation."
|
| The standards specialist refers to the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to
| Trade, which states that duplication or overlap should be avoided.
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http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7546/469
I discussed this with someone a couple of months ago (gathering evidence), but
we never published this. It comes at a great time!
Related:
EU Initiates Investigation Against Microsoft OOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| But with Steve Ballmer taking over as CEO, there was supposed to be a kinder,
| gentler Microsoft - one that would play nicely with its competitors. When
| antitrust regulators in turn challenged this new Microsoft, it issued not
| challenges to fight to the end to prove that it had done nothing illegal, but
| statements promising to "cooperate fully."
|
| But at the same time, Microsoft is still a tough competitor. As Microsoft's
| Director of Corporate Standards Jason Matusow famously warned at his blog
| last year:
|
| Make no mistake; all parties are looking at the full picture to find
| strategies that will result in the outcome they desire. Provided - of
| course - that they do so within the context of the rules that apply to
| the process, this is exactly what one should expect to happen. It is
| going to be a very interesting next few months.
|
| Indeed, the months that followed proved to be interesting indeed. Microsoft
| said that some of its employees became over zealous, most flagrantly in
| Sweden, where marketing assists were promised to several business partners as
| incentives to join the national standards committee and vote for OOXM.
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http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080208082501776
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
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http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
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