- From: Bea Fontaine <bea@webwitches.com>
- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:45:59 +0300
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
As someone who has been tirelessly advocating the w3c as the necessary basis of all web development, someone who has been trying to coax people into not using proprietary technologies because they purposefully counteract the provision of ubiquitously accessible information, I can't let this one go. I have, in the past, trusted the fact that I did not need to read wordy legal docs on w3c.org because "they" would take care of the web for me, as I thought was their mission statement. So much for naivety. It has been hard enough to convince people that the web does not look to everyone else as it does on their browser of the unspeakable name - and that this, oh surprise!, is _not_ the web's fault, but the browser's. It is still hard enough to convince people that the philosophy of the open source movement is very strongly related to that of freedom of expression. Turning the use of a piece of proprietary software into a standard on a pay-per-view basis is tantamount to taxing free speech. It is inherently ethically wrong to turn something into a standard that will cost money. Why _is_ there an open source movement if not to counteract exactly that? People can use whatever on earth they _want_ on their website, but that does _not_ make it a standard, especially if it costs money to use it. I suppose it was only a question of time before the powers-that-be would try to find a way to pervert the web per se into something that would make money for them by itself. It is inacceptable to let a committee that includes for-profit organisations decide who gets a share of the "web-cake" (as if there was one) and who doesn't. I, for one, had trusted that committee to work on technical standards for the general benefit (as they proclaim!), not on money-making schemes for its members. The web, as such, let's not forget this truism, does not belong to anyone. Thankfully, I also believe that the RAND proposal is based on a product-marketing-based misapprehension of where the web community itself is headed. The power of the web lies in the fact that, for better and for worse and despite many attempts to stop it, it is the first uncontrolled, uncurtailed, potentially omnipresent as well as next-to-omniscient information, communication, collaboration and entertainment source on the planet. That makes it too subversive and chaotic for any one sales department to deal with. Those who have begun to cherish that freedom will not relinquish it because of the greedy concerns of royalty hunters. If the w3c chooses to go against its own goals (http://www.w3.org/Consortium/#mission), another movement will just take over. These things happen very quickly and by themselves - that is why whole European governments are thinking of switching to linux, no matter _who_ is throwing tantrums and stomping their feet in Seattle. All of the above, is of course, my personal opinion. Maybe I require more explanation? Béatrice Fontaine - WebWitches URL www.webwitches.com
Received on Wednesday, 10 October 2001 05:46:39 UTC