ODF is Truly Free says the SFLC
The Software Freedom Law Center is an organization whose mission is to “provide legal representation and other law-related services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software.” Yesterday, the SFLC cleared ODF for free software use:
“A number of our clients asked us to determine whether ODF is truly free of patent, copyright and trademark encumbrances. We looked into the issue, and are confident that developers can use ODF in free software,” said James Vasile, SFLC Legal Counsel. “ODF is GPL-compatible.”
With this assurance, more developers will feel comfortable creating products that incorporate ODF, which means we’ll have even more choice regarding which tools we use. This is great!
It does raise an interesting question, however: Microsoft is trying to compete with ODF by producing their own open format. Will their format be similarly cleared by the SFLC? Or will Open XML require the use of MS Office due to the potential legal risks of implementing the format elsewhere?