[Xiph-Advocacy] Will Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora and FLAC become free and open standards soon?

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

Hi.  Here in Norway, a common attack on the Ogg family of audio and
video formats is that neither are open standards as defined by EU in
<URL:http://europa.eu.int/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=19529> (page 9) or
Digistan in <URL:http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition>.

Are there any plans to standardize Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora and FLAC in
a way that make it match these definitions?  I notice the Ogg
container format is standardized in IETF as RFC 3533, and it would be
great if Vorbis, Theora and FLAC would be standardized in IETF as
well.

This is the EU definition:

  The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
  and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
  open standard:

   * The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a
     not-for-profit organisation, and its ongoing development occurs
     on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to
     all interested parties (consensus or majority decision etc.).

   * The standard has been published and the standard specification
     document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It
     must be permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no
     fee or at a nominal fee.

   * The intellectual property ? i.e. patents possibly present ? of
     (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a
     royalty-free basis.

   * There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.

This is the Digistan definition:

  The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard as
  follows:

   * A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all
     stages in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it
     possible to freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a
     standard over time.

   * The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a
     not-for-profit organization, and its ongoing development occurs
     on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to
     all interested parties.

    * The standard has been published and the standard specification
      document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to
      copy, distribute, and use it freely.

   * The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
     irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.

   * There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.

  The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
  measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers
  of products based on the standard.

Happy hacking,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen