XBRL GAAP taxonomies not free tu use?

["Harm-Jan van Burg" <harmjan@vanburg.net>]

Friends,

Mails about IPR issues are flying around the globe in what seems to be a
heated argument. Within OASIS I think we will get this matter sorted in a
manner that at least the work of our committee can go on uninterrupted.
Because our TC is also very interested in XBRL (in this case unfortunately
not an OASIS standard) its is important to let you know that we have a very
worrying situation on our hands. It seems that important base taxonomies
like the IFRS en possibly US_GAAP are not royalty free. The possibilities of
extending on these taxonomies seems to be restricted. This would be a bad
sign for the adoption of the XBRL standard in the regulator environment.
As project leader of the Dutch National XBRL project and as chair of the
OASIS tax xml TC I have expressed these worries with the international
steering committee of XBRL int.
It is a wrong situation in the open standard community if parties  want to
take or keep control with use of the IPR instrument. Even if there are not
immediate financial gains.
In case of the Dutch project we have decided to ask for a formal agreement
of the use of the IFRS taxonomy. If we do not get this we have to cut off
the IFRS part of the taxonomy. Because we have a modular taxonomy this will
not be too hard to do.
The purpose of this mail is to make you aware of this issue. So if there are
plans to build on GAAP taxonomies. Something what most sensible tax
administrations should do. Be sure that there is not a hidden IPR time bomb.

Harm Jan van Burg