Such a sad state of affairs

I just don't get it.  I don't understand what passes for contemporary thinking in this world.
 
a) Who in the world would put the fox in charge of the hen house?  What difference is there between my analogy and letting a group of for-profit companies write a policy that let's them nickel and dime us to death?
 
b) Will the w3c allow the open source community to write the reverse policy where-by all future web standards are required to be sans-licensing?  It's just the other side of the coin (well, almost the other side) of what they are trying to let these corporations do.  I somehow doubt they would allow that.
 
c) Grow a spine, people.  Not every dang thing on this planet needs to translate to additional millions of dollars in corporate pockets.  I urge w3c to prevent this from happening.  I urge w3c to step in the other direction and guarantee a free and open web.  Certainly everything else already costs us enough.
 
d) to Bill Gates, et al, when are you going to have enough money?
 
e) Sigh.