in support of patent-free standards

Dear W3C Patent Policy Working Group,

As a developer and implementor of the standards at w3.org, I'm concerned
about the recent Patent Policy Framework draft, which could allow W3C
members to charge 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.

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,

Tom Garcia
11 Half Moon Lane
Worthing
BN13 2EN UK

-- 
Tom Garcia | tgarcia@hivemind.org | www.hivemind.org
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Received on Monday, 8 October 2001 08:32:10 UTC