I oppose patented standards

• From: James <jcherryh@ozemail.com.au>
• Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 20:53:36 +0100
• To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
• Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20011004204915.00b67a60@mail.ozemail.com.au>

I oppose the proposal to introduce RAND licencing for W3C standards.

Standards must remain free to enable open source implementations.

The introduction of patented technologies into W3C standards creates a 
situation where an organisation could systematically destroy the ability of 
open source developers to implement key W3C standards.

In practice the proposal could also create legal difficulties as most 
counties have greatly differing positions on software patents.

Web standard must remain free and open to all. To do otherwise threatens 
the open source community which has been instrumental in creating the web 
as we know it.

Received on Thursday, 4 October 2001 15:54:53 UTC