This is an archive of past discussions about Office Open XML. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
"Microsoft has assured the European Union that the Office Open XML standard meets the European Union definitions of an Open Standard, meaning the specification is freely available and implementable by anyone." -- Reference? Podmok 19:23, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
Below we find the same claim and as a reference: "Pan-European eGovernment Services Committee (2006-12-06). Conclusions and recommendations on Open Document Formats (see §3.3). IDABC Expert Group (European Union). Retrieved on 2006-02-13." However, first of all IDABC is an EU agency for eGovernment. Second no formal document/letter from Microsoft is referenced here. I would like to see an opinion from DG Competition. Podmok 13:15, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
You do not trust that if an EU agency states there is an assurance by MS that there actually is an assurance ? They would make it up ??? hAl14:27, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
See discussion above under references. IDABC confirmed that a) the document is NO official EU document b) they did not receive such letter. c) the paper says that the group (which is not the EU) knows what everyone knows. The statement that Microsoft informed the Commission is unsourced as the document does not express that-Arebenti12:47, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
So it should actually be more accurate to state that an expert group working for the EU was assured by the publicly availalbe information of Micrsoft and Ecma information that the standard is free and can be used by anyone ??? hAl14:59, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
No, in fact there is no knowledge about such a letter at IDABC. And the original reference posted did not support the claim made. In fact the information seems to be irrelevant. Arebenti12:26, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
