RAND

I would like to applaud the work of the W3C to date.

However, the option of integrating RAND licensing into ANY W3C
recommendation WILL, in my opinion, have a detrimental impact on the
contributions (competitive and otherwise) to the Web of the Open Source
Community.

In a world where the "selling" price of a software based system can be
anywhere from $0 to multi-millions, any license fee that has ANY fixed
amount (as opposed to a percentage of either the "selling" price or the
"profits") is by definition "discriminatory".

If the W3C explicitly defines a RAND license as one based on a percentage
(of either the "selling" price or the "profits"), then it seems to be
workable.  If not, then the W3C is simply creating an infrastructure that
will create a future where Open Source is effectively "Illegal"!

George Smith
ASIX.com

Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 12:16:58 UTC