Public Comment

[comment-form@oasis-open.org]

Comment from: eleaver@earthlink.net

Name: Edward W. Leaver
Title:
Organization:
Regarding Specification: OASIS Open Document 

Hi. There are some question on the Web pertaining to the license requirements and restrictions of the Open Document Format V1.0. The major problem seems to be that no one can determine what the license is. It there one? We  haven't been able to find it. What we can find is

Statement regarding IPR, submitted by Sun Microsystems, 11 December 2002

Sun Microsystems, Inc. ("Sun") will offer a Royalty-Free License under its Essential Claims for the OpenOffice.org XML File Format Specification. One precondition of any such license granted to a party ("licensee") shall be the licensee's agreement to grant reciprocal Royalty-Free Licenses under its Essential Claims to Sun and other implementers of such specification. Sun expressly reserves all other rights it may have.

But the OASIS definition of "Royalty-Free" specifically excludes sublicensing. On the other hand, the Sun-sponsored OpenOffice.org *implementation* of the OASIS Open Document spec is itself licensed under the LGPL, which specifically *does* allow sublicensing. 

So what's the story?

A bit of clarification here, some specific statement regarding the license for use and implementation of the OASIS Open Document Format would go a long way toward stemming the impending Flood of FUD.

Your current FAQ #5 doesn't quite suffice.

Thanks!

Sincerely,

Edward W. Leaver