NoOOXML

ECMA and Microsoft employees are mentioning that there is a bilateral RFRAND patent licence available for companies that "sometimes have a large commercial operation" and prefer to enter into a bi-lateral license agreement as opposed to relying on a CNS or OSP-like promise.

An anonymous coward explains how the Swiss national board will vote, in a fair and free decision that will think carefully before saying "YES" to Microsoft.

BoycottNovell explains, with clear graphics and labels, why many very important Linux distributors are supporting OOXML. It's very important to understand why big firms like TurboLinux, Corel, Xandros, Linspire, and Novell, believe OOXML is better than hot sliced bread. Read on...

The Polish Standardization Committee wants to get answers to the three questions: 1. Is there a certifiable violation of patent and IP policy of ISO?; 2. Is the proposed norm meets the aims of international norm described in ISO/IEC directives?; 3. Is the proposed norm is in contradiction with other existing ISO norms?

Thanks to many contributors, the NoOOXML petition now has translations in 35 languages and has received over 31,000 signatures from individuals around the world.

Our correspondent from the Caucasus reports on his efforts to shed some light on the OOXML vote in Azerbaijan, a P-Member. Seems Microsoft 'arranged' the vote already...

EU competition policy is a lame duck but it is alive. However, Kroes won't sanitize OOXML patent and disclosure problems.

The Andalusian Government denounces that Microsoft has fakely reported officially that Andalusia was backing the ISO DIS 29500 approval in AENOR (Spanish NSB). Andalusia reports that it has already choosen ISO/IEC 26300 (OpenDocument).

Microsoft has put in the Brazilian committee more than 2/3 of the currently existing 54 members. The technical debate about DIS 29500 does not matter now. Only matters who puts more members in the committee for the final vote at the end August. ISO and ABNT are being hijacked by Microsoft and its partners.

In a press release, the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) warns that the OOXML vote is one of only two major decisions in September that will define the future of interoperability in the key desktop computing market.

BoycottNovell is mentioning that the Microsoft puppets have reached the number of 17 our of 31 in the Danish technical committee. Is there a Dane reading us to officially complain about this joke?

Microsoft has been defeated in Spain (a place that they were expecting to win) for 4 votes against 3 including one from Microsoft itself. The rejection won by a majority of votes, but the final vote of Spain will be an ABSTENTION because the internal rules of AENOR require a 2/3 majority either way. Spain is a "P" (principal) member at ISO/IEC.

You have 2 kind of secretaries: those who write binary and those who don't.

"ISO standards are like the old ladies of the standards world, respectable, prim, a bit musty, but irreproachable. No-one ever got fired for implementing an ISO standard. And with good reason—ISO has always been a careful process of assembling diverse opinion, negotiating away conflict, and reaching consensus. Membership of ISO committees is voluntary and unpaid. In other words, ISO is a sitting duck for someone with the money and the will to abuse the system. "

Microsoft is continuing its lobbying on OOXML in the United States towards the members of INCITS, namelly HP, Apple, Intel, Lexmark, etc...

Jon Bosak, the Sun Microsystems XML guru, is mentionning that Sun is supporting the ISO standardisation of OOXML. But maybe not at any price.

Microsoft is looking for puppets to represent themselves in the Australian Standardization Body: "We need more Aussie companies supporting Office Open XML". Maybe Microsoft is interested in technical comments on their broken standard?

Microsoft OOXML has been rejected yesterday in South Africa by 13 NO votes against 2 YES votes with comments and 2 YES votes without comments.

Citizens of MS Ireland are invited to sent their comment to NSAI no later than 11 July 2007.

Microsoft failed to get approval for its "Yes with comments" in the technical committee in the United States for one puppet. Buy more puppets now!