- From: Susan Margulies <bajichuan@hotmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 14:50:36
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
Dear W3C Patent Policy Working Group: I am deeply concerned about the recent Patent Policy Framework draft, and the possibility of charging royalty fees for technologies included in web standards. In particular, I object to the inclusion of a "reasonable and non-discriminatory" (RAND) licensing option in the proposed policy. I believe that the exclusive use of a "royalty-free" (RF) licensing model is in the best interests of the Internet community, and that RAND licensing would always necessarily exclude some would-be implementors, especially among open source and free software developers. Quite simply, I believe that members of the engineering community should strive to keep the Internet as free as possible for as long as possible. RAND licensing will necessarily inhibit the standardization of the Internet and inhibit the growth and spread of technology. I applaud the W3C for its tradition of providing open-source reference implementations and its work to promote a wide variety of interoperable implementations of its open standards. The W3C can best continue its work of "leading the Web to its full potential" by continuing this tradition, and saying no to RAND licensing. Sincerely, Susan Margulies Software Engineer Oakland, CA _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
Received on Friday, 5 October 2001 10:51:08 UTC