(Summary: This paper not only provides legal implications of open format but also explains its advantages, problems and how to make them more popular.
Text of Talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh on 09.10.2008 in the Second International Open Document Format User Workshop organised by the E-Documentation committee chaired by South Africa's Department of Home Affairs in collaboration with ODF Alliance at Pretoria.)
It is honour and priviledge, to participate in the 2nd ODF workshop, and to be in South Africa – a country that Indians owe a lot.
One hundred and fifteen years ago (1893), a young 23 years old Indian barrister, took his maiden but fateful South African train journey from Durban. He was coming to Pretoria to defend a legal case. He could not complete the journey that night: he was thrown out of his first class compartment at Peter Maritzburg, despite the fact he had first class compartment ticket. His only fault was that he was coloured. He spent that cold winter night at the railway station but started his journey from Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi. It was during his 21 years stay here at South Africa that he realised importance of human dignity and started struggle against racial descrimination; It was here that he realised importance of non-violence (Satyagrah) and started quest for our independence.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to visit this wonderful country that I always wanted to visit.
