Resist RAND

I strongly oppose RAND licensing. As an open source developer, I'm
afraid of being locked out from using standards because I lack the
financial strength of commercial competitors. 
 
A standard that I can't implement and share freely is useless to me.
I've been supporting W3C in the past because I see standards as an
important way to achieve interoperabitity between different
implementations. The important standards I worked with have always
been free. Everybody could use them. That's what made them strong.                     
If patent holders can gain profits by pushing their patents into
standards and collect royalties, of course they will do that.
A standard that doesn't belong to the people is tainted, it's always
inferior to a free one. Why would the W3C want to adopt it? Who
does the W3C represent?

Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 20:48:51 UTC