- From: F J Franklin <F.J.Franklin@sheffield.ac.uk>
- Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 15:35:52 +0100 (BST)
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
> Ok, so could you explain how 'nothing at all' is better?
It sounds absurd to argue this:
RAND is not a solution. It is a trap, an FUD-bomb, which masquerades as a
solution, which makes it worse.
You may have alleviated my fear, uncertainty and doubt over SVG (the
necessity of RAND licenses here follow from a lack of foresight, but
everyone makes mistakes and I don't hold the W3C responsible) but the
solution is not to embrace RAND.
Of course it's necessary for patents to be declared at the start of a
standards project, but unless these are RF they should be worked around.
I hold these views because I am an open source programmer. If the W3C is
going to publish 'open' standards that open source programmers cannot
implement freely then it should make this absolutely and clearly explicit.
Regards,
Francis James Franklin
Deep in the human unconsciousness is a pervasive need for a logical
universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step
beyond logic.
--- from `The Sayings of Muad'dib' by the Princess Irulan
Received on Thursday, 4 October 2001 10:35:54 UTC