[poppler] PDF 2.0 Spec (answer from FSFE)

[Tobias Deiminger]

Hi folks,

below is a copy of an answer from FSF Europe regarding
what we can do to get access to PDF ISO standard. Thanks
again to Max Mehl and LUGOS, in case you're reading here.

The bottom line is, we should try to find an organisation that
is/becomes member of a national standardisation body (170€/year)
on behalf of poppler, and poppler devs need to be member of that
org in turn. This way we get (free) access to drafts of standards
and could even influence the standards development.

Friendly orgs to ask may be
- KDE e.V.
- GNOME Foundation
- The Document Foundation

What's your opinion / preference about that? Would you be ok with
becoming a member of one of that orgs? If you're interested,
I can carry on contacting named orgs regarding the idea.

Cheers
Tobias



--- snip, copy of answer starts here ---

 From: FSFE <contact at fsfe.org> (Free Software Foundation Europe e.V.)
To: tobias.deiminger at posteo.de
CC: aacid at kde.org

Dear Tobias,

Some weeks ago you've asked us for help with the latest PDF
specification.

21/12/2018 09:57 - FSFE wrote:
> 12/12/2018 19:54 - Tobias Deiminger wrote:
> > Poppler developers need access to the PDF specification,
> > which used to be available free of charge. Things changed in
> > 2017 when there was a new major release of the PDF standard.
> > The old version 1.7 was (C) Adobe [1], but the new version
> > 2.0 is (C) ISO and they claim 198 CHF [2] or 229,40 € [3]
> > for one copy. I talked to DIN, they have other licensing
> > models, but still too expensive for private volunteers.
> 
> Thanks for your request and your work on this important project.
> 
> > Does FSFE already have some contact with ISO and a known
> > procedure regarding getting standards for free software
> > projects, from similar cases? And no matter if yes or no,
> > could you contact ISO and ask them if they can give away some
> > copies - 6 would be nice - for free, for a charitable project?
> > You're experienced in dealing with big organisations, and a
> > request from you would be loaded with some political weight.
> 
> As far as I know we have no direct contact with ISO, but I will ask our
> core team whether someone has some connections. Otherwise, I will send 
> a
> mail to ISO on my own, but I can't promise anything of course.

We've discussed that, and this is the latest status on it, given by a
member of the Slovenian NGO LUGOS:

   Update from LUGOS’ side after we discussed internally and with
   SIST (Slovenian Institute for Standardisation), a member of which
   LUGOS is as well:

   Firstly – and most importantly – the spec in question is already
   being superseeded by a newer¹ one. The ISO 32000-2:2017 standard
   that Tobias was asking for is currently in 90.92/Review phase and
   is going to be superseeded by ISO/CD 32000-2.

   BTW, the ISO/CD 32000-2, is currently in the 30.60/Committee Draft
   (CD) phase, so a perfect time for organisations to influence the
   new standard (revision) in the making.

   Members of national standardisation bodies have (free) access to
   drafts of standards and can influence the development. In almost
   all cases the very last draft is identical to the final standard.

   SIST itself is not following the ISO/TC 171/SC 2 yet, but LUGOS
   can make a request to join that Technical Committee (TC). We are
   discussing it, and probably will join.

   Even then, LUGOS would not be allowed to share the standard draft
   outside of its membership, due to copyright protection.

   But, I should let you know that the price for an NGO to be a
   member of the national standardisation body is very much
   affordable – LUGOS pays cca. 170 €/year to be member of SIST – the
   easiest way to get your hands on a standard (in the making) would
   be to have KDE e.V. or FSFE e.V. join DIN and request to follow
   ISO/TC 171/SC 2 (and other TC of interest).

   To keep things kosher, it would be prudent to either make all who
   have access to the standard members of the e.V., or to make the
   PDF 2.0 feature an (official) project of said e.V., so people who
   would be working on this project would be able to have access to
   the docs legally.

As the FSFE is not doing any software development, I would recommend to
team up with KDE e.V. or The Document Foundation, which both have some
projects in this regard. If you need some contacts to these
organisations, I'd be happy to help.

Best,
Max

-- 
Max Mehl - Free Software Foundation Europe e.V.
Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany.
Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030
Your support enables our work (fsfe.org/join)