Remarks at the Document Freedom Day event "Open Standards in the e-Book market" in the European Parliament, 28 March 2012, Brussels

1. Document Freedom Day: Open Standards in the e-Book market
Brussels, 28 March 2012
E-Books in the
Digital Agenda
for Europe
Carl-Christian Buhr
http://bit.ly/cc_buhr, @ccbuhr
http://slidesha.re/ebookeu (All expressed views are those of the speaker.)

2. 101 Actions
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda
DAE
http://bit.ly/NeelieKroesEU,
@NeelieKroesEU

3. 101 Actions
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda
Advising on...
ICT Standardisation
Interoperability
ICT Research Policy
Cloud Computing
Key Enabling Technologies
etc.
http://bit.ly/cc_buhr,
@ccbuhr
http://bit.ly/NeelieKroesEU,
@NeelieKroesEU

4. The Commission has a role...
...Policy Maker
Launches policy debates
Invites Member States to take action
Proposes EU legislation
Supports coordination
...Funding Agency
Research & Innovation projects
...Information producer
Reports, studies, proposals and other
documents that should be readable

5. Some History...
16 December 2009: Commission-brokered Microsoft
Public Interoperability Undertaking, e.g. ODF
support and other standard formats and protocols
(Link Commission, Link Microsoft)
Neelie Kroes speeches on open standards in the
public sector, interoperability more generally:
1. 10 June 2008 (“Being Open about Standards”)
2. 10 June 2010 (
“How to get more interoperability in Europe”)

6. Interoperability & Standards
in the Digital Agenda
“We need effective
interoperability between
IT products and services
to build a truly digital
society.”
A Digital Agenda for Europe (COM(2010)245, 19.05.2010),
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52010DC0245R(01):EN:NOT

7. Digital Agenda Actions
(ICT) Standardisation Reform (2011)
Guidance on standardisation (2011)
Public procurement & Standards (2012)
EU Interoperability Framework (2010)
Interoperability w/o standards (2012)
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda

8. Open Standards for e-Books -
A Better Deal for Readers
“[...] that people can buy content for
any device from any supplier, transfer
that content between their own
devices, and keep possession of it
even beyond the device's lifespan.
That could deliver openness, freedom
and choice for the consumer - with
benefits too for smaller market
players like independent bookshops.
Open standards already exist in this
field [...]”
Books in the 21st century
Opening address to representatives & members of Federation of European Publishers,
Frankfurt Book fair, 13 October 2011.

9. Issues 1: Commercial
Clear deal for consumers? (DRM? Which uses? How long?
On which devices? Is transfer possible/simple?)
Owner or licensor? (Analogy to buying or lending?)
Likely scenarios? (Lending-only, buying-only, hybrids,
price differentials?)
(Linked to, but different from, discussions on
copyright & its exceptions, general (and trusted)
computing etc. Cf., one example of many, R. Stallman‘s
dystopia The Right to Read.)

10. Issues 2: Cultural
Avoiding bottlenecks
Open access to publicy funded research.
Availability of textbooks and educational material.
Archiving and Preservation
Legal deposit and eBooks?
European Digital Library: www.europeana.eu
Proposed Directive on orphan works
Memorandum of Understanding on out-of-commerce works

11. Final thought...
https://twitter.com/NeelieKroesEU/status/163988964754202625
“Member States may apply a reduced VAT rate to certain
cultural products but have to apply the standard rate
to competing on-line services such as e-books”
Green Paper on the future of VAT (p. 15, 1 December 2010).

12. Selected Pointers
The Digital Agenda for Europe
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda
Interoperability & Standards Digital Agenda actions
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/pillar.cfm?pillar_id=44
Neelie Kroes Speeches
Being open about standards: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/317
More interoperability: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/10/300
Books in the 21st century: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/660
The European Commission and Open Access to the results of
publicly funded research
http://slidesha.re/euopenaccess
Contacts
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<twitter>@NeelieKroesEU, @ccbuhr</twitter>
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