- From: Steve Summit <scs@eskimo.com>
- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 22:39:45 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
- Cc: scs@eskimo.com
The comment period is ending if not over, so I'll keep this short. I can't urge the W3C strongly enough to reconsider its position towards the potential standardization of proprietary protocols. If a company is able to foist a proprietary protocol as a de facto standard on the net (as Microsoft has done, for example, with Word documents as email attachments), that's one thing, but it is not the W3C's job to assist companies in that endeavor. Quite the contrary, it seems to me that it's the W3C's job to preserve the open, vibrant spirit which characterizes the web (like the rest of the net) and which has gotten it where it is today. The IETF has traditionally disallowed closed, proprietary, patent-encumbered, or otherwise restricted protocols in its standardization process, and the W3C should, too. Steve Summit scs@eskimo.com
Received on Thursday, 11 October 2001 10:38:45 UTC