FSMI Note on Draft Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance Version 1.1

Free Software Movement of India a national coalition of free software
organizations would like to submit comments on the Draft Policy on Open
Standards for e-Governance Version 1.1 dated May 2010, for the kind
consideration of the Department of Information Technology.

We thank DIT and all those involved in drafting this policy which is
commendable. This policy is a landmark policy for e-Governance and has
tremendous long term implications in e-Governance and also on the future
of the information society in India. We welcome DIT's initiative in
creating this policy because the provisioning of public goods like open
standards can be done only through government intervention. The current
situation, where de-facto proprietary standards, encumbered by heavy
royalties, is a serious threat to the emerging global knowledge commons;
and the free flow of ideas and information across the world. From a
financial perspective and sovereignity of the nation, propagating
proprietary standards would be tantamount to transferring wealth and
knowledge from the citizens of our country into private hands. It is
therefore heartening to note that DIT has taken a decisive step to
mandate open standards. At the same time, we request DIT to define open
standards more clearly in the policy and finalize it without delay,
since the policy has been in the works since 2007 and has been delayed
several times.

Our biggest concern is with Section 4.1.2 of the policy, which states
that, “The patent claims necessary to implement the Identified Standard
shall be available on a Royalty-Free basis for the life time of the
Standard. If such Standards are not found feasible then in the wider
public interest, Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms and
conditions (FRAND) or Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms and
conditions (RAND) with no payment could be considered.”

*We request DIT to take a very firm stance and remove the FRAND/RAND
sentence from this section because it is a huge anomaly in a section
titled, “Mandatory Characteristics.” *The entire sentence, “If such
Standards are not found feasible then in the wider public interest,
Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms and conditions (FRAND) or
Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms and conditions (RAND) with no
payment could be considered” should be moved to Section 4.3 that deals
with “Non-availability of Open Standard which meets all Mandatory
Characteristics.” We understand that in certain cases, some exceptions
will have to be made. These exceptions can be handled through Section
4.3. Placing the exception in Section 4.1.2 conveys the impression that
DIT is not firm in its resolve to guide the country towards open
standards and therefore removing it from this section will go a long way
in correcting that impression, without hampering DIT's flexibility in
any way.

/4.3 Non-availability of Open Standard which meets all Mandatory
Characteristics /

The Designated Body tasked with selecting standards must be selected
transparently and with representation from a wide variety of
stakeholders to prevent circumvention of the policy. This is a crucial
area of interest to civil society, especially after the recent
controversy around the OOXML standardisation process. The blatant manner
in which international standards organizations were subverted, national
standards organizations were stuffed with Gold and Premium partners of a
proprietary software vendor and every single loophole in the
standardization process brutally exploited,
should serve as a cautionary tale. Given the disregard that some
proprietary vendors have shown for the sovereignty of countries and for
the long-term interests of users, any standard emanating from such
proprietary vendor must be treated with extreme caution. We request DIT
to stand firm against vendors of proprietary standards and offer the
whole-hearted support of Free Software Movement of India and its member
Organizations in the effort to implement genuine open standards and free
India from the clutches of proprietary standards.


Yours Sincerely

Y.Kiran Chandra
General Secretary
Free Software Movement of India
201, Karan Centre, SD Road
Secunderabad.
+919490098011
+914027845288
Fax: +914027845289