[OSGeo-Standards] EU ruling about openness of standards

[Iván Sánchez Ortega]

Hi all,

The EU Court of Justice has recently publised a press release[1] about a 
ruling[2], about whether a standard for the safety of chemicals (specifically 
nickel) in children's toys should be publicly (and openly, and gratis) 
accessible for EU citizens.

Although the press release puts some focus on the "toys" part of the ruling, 
the ruling itself reasons that harmonized standards required by EU law are 
indeed EU law, and as such, the fact that citizens must have access to the law 
takes precedence over any copyright. And that reasoning is in general for any 
standards in the EU, not just for the one about toys' chemicals.

[1] https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2024-03/
cp240041en.pdf

[2] https://curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?num=C-588/21

(I cross-posted this to the OGC "tc-discuss" mailing list, where there's a bit 
of discussion)

Best,
-- 
Iván Sánchez Ortega <ivan at sanchezortega.es> https://ivan.sanchezortega.es