Re: Response to Public Comments on the W3C Patent Policy Framework Working Draft

Before addressing the specific sections of the Patent Policy Framework
Working Draft at http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-patent-policy-20010816/  one
glaring point in your Response to Public Comments at
http://www.w3.org/2001/10/patent-response needs attention.

In the Response at "1. What are the goals of the proposed policy?" the
following statement cries for comment:

"W3C recognizes that a Royalty-Free environment was essential to the growth
of the Web, and the contributions of the open source developer community
have been critical to its success."

Stating that the Royalty-Free environment WAS essential to the growth of the
Web gives the impression that the growth has been achieved.  When less than
6% of the of the world's population has access to the Internet and the Web,
we are far from realizing the full growth - AND - it is the more challenging
parts of the Web that need extraordinary efforts to achieve.  There are
facets to the Digital Divide that the majority of the Web population has not
even considered and all need to be bridged.  We're not talking about just
third world nations, economically depressed regions in all countries, and
physical challenges but all reasons that people do not have ready access to
the Internet.

Since it appears that we are going to end up with W3C recommendations that
are non-royalty-free, Section 7 needs a very simple and straight forward
section that requires labeling of such standards.  The picture that comes to
mind is the statement on a package of cigarettes regarding the Surgeon
General's warning about cancer and health problems.  It should also be
required that implementation of those non-royalty-free standards in items
offered to the general public must be similarly labeled.  The objective
should be that everyone makes an informed decision.  No one ends up blindly
stumbling into the future royalty stream of an organization or individual -
informed choice is a must.

Mike Todd
President, Mike Todd Associates
www.MikeTodd.com
Supporting the Digital Coast

President, Internet Society Los Angeles Chapter
www.ISOC-LosAngeles.org

Vice President, Individual Membership, Internet Society
www.ISOC.org

  Voice:  714-846-7257
  FAX:    714-846-5716
  Cell:   714-222-3700

Received on Wednesday, 10 October 2001 16:59:31 UTC