In FOP's configuration file, if no <base> or <font-base> element has been defined, then relative URIs inside the rest of the file should be resolved against its base URI, and not against the working directory (generally the directory from which the fop script has been called). This would better conform to RFC 3986: http://labs.apache.org/webarch/uri/rfc/rfc3986.html#reference-resolution
resetting P2 open bugs to P3 pending further review