Editing Open standard (section)

== Definitions ==
The terms ''open'' and ''standard'' have a wide range of meanings associated with their usage. There are a number of definitions of open standards which emphasize different aspects of openness, including the openness of the resulting specification, the openness of the drafting process, and the ownership of rights in the standard. The term "standard" is sometimes restricted to technologies approved by formalized committees that are open to participation by all interested parties and operate on a consensus basis.

The definitions of the term ''open standard'' used by academics, the [[European Union]], and some of its member governments or parliaments such as [[Denmark]], [[France]], and [[Spain]] preclude open standards requiring fees for use, as do the [[New Zealand]], [[South Africa]]n and the [[Venezuelan]] governments. On the standard organisation side, the [[World Wide Web Consortium]] (W3C) ensures that its specifications can be implemented on a [[royalty-free]] basis.

Many definitions of the term ''standard'' permit [[patent holder]]s to impose "[[reasonable and non-discriminatory]] licensing" [[royalty fee]]s and other licensing terms on implementers or users of the standard. For example, the rules for standards published by the major internationally recognized standards bodies such as the [[Internet Engineering Task Force]] (IETF), [[International Organization for Standardization]] (ISO), [[International Electrotechnical Commission]] (IEC), and [[ITU-T]] permit their standards to contain specifications whose implementation will require payment of patent licensing fees. Among these organizations, only the IETF and ITU-T explicitly refer to their standards as "open standards", while the others refer only to producing "standards". The IETF and ITU-T use definitions of "open standard" that allow "reasonable and non-discriminatory" patent licensing fee requirements.

There are those in the open-source software community who hold that an "open standard" is only open if it can be freely adopted, implemented and extended.<ref name="book">{{cite web |first1=Henry William | last1= Chesbrough |first2= Wim | last2= Vanhaverbeke|first3= Joel | last3= West |title=Tim Simcoe: 'Chapter 8: Open Standards and Intellectual Property Rights' in Open Innovation: Researching A New Paradigm | publisher= Oxford University Press | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232957368 |year =2008|access-date= April 25, 2017}}</ref> While open standards or architectures are considered non-proprietary in the sense that the standard is either unowned or owned by a collective body, it can still be publicly shared and not tightly guarded.<ref name="Langlois, Richard N 1999">Langlois, Richard N. "Technological Standards, Innovation, and Essential Facilities: Toward a Schmpeterian Post-Chicago Approach." (1999).</ref> The typical example of "open source" that has become a standard is the personal computer originated by IBM and now referred to as [[Wintel]], the combination of the Microsoft operating system and Intel microprocessor.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Gordon |first=Richard L. |title=Transaction Costs, Property Rights, and the Limits of Government |date=1994 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2620-9_6 |work=Regulation and Economic Analysis |pages=61–78 |access-date=2023-06-29 |place=Boston, MA |publisher=Springer US |doi=10.1007/978-1-4615-2620-9_6 |isbn=978-1-4613-6123-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref> There are three others that are most widely accepted as "open" which include the [[GSM phone]]s (adopted as a government standard), [[Open Group]] which promotes [[UNIX]], and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which created the first standards of SMTP and TCP/IP. Buyers tend to prefer open standards which they believe offer them cheaper products and more choice for access due to network effects and increased competition between vendors.<ref>Greenstein, Shane, and Victor Sango, eds. ''Standards and Public Policy''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.</ref>

Open standards which specify formats are sometimes referred to as [[open format]]s.

Many specifications that are sometimes referred to as standards are proprietary, and only available (if they can be obtained at all) under restrictive contract terms from the organization that owns the [[copyright]] on the specification. As such these specifications are not considered to be fully ''open''. Joel West has argued that "open" standards are not black and white but have many different levels of "openness".<ref>{{Citation |last=West |first=Joel |title=The economic realities of open standards: black, white, and many shades of gray |date=2006-12-21 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/CBO9780511493249A012/type/book_part |work=Standards and Public Policy |pages=87–122 |editor-last=Greenstein |editor-first=Shane |access-date=2023-06-29 |edition=1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511493249.004 |isbn=978-0-521-86450-3 |s2cid=17934389 |editor2-last=Stango |editor2-first=Victor|url-access=subscription }}</ref> A more open standard tends to occur when the knowledge of the technology becomes dispersed enough that competition is increased and others are able to start copying the technology as they implement it. This occurred with the Wintel architecture as others were able to start imitating the software.<ref name=":1" /> Less open standards exist when a particular firm has much power (not ownership) over the standard, which can occur when a firm's platform "wins" in standard setting or the market makes one platform most popular.<ref>Joel West as cited Greenstein, Shane, and Victor Sango, eds. Standards and Public Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.</ref>