- From: Jonathan Graehl <jonathan@graehl.org>
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 23:55:21 -0700
- To: <www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org>
W3C should continue to produce open standards that can be freely implemented, or else not produce them at all. A standard that requires licensing patents, even under RAND terms, prevents open source programmers from adhering to the standard. Considering the web's heritage, this would be a sad direction to see W3C go. Companies that contribute to standards should be required to guarantee royalty-free license for technology they wish to promote through inclusion in W3C standards - including all future patent claims. If they are not willing to do so, then they can continue to enjoy their exclusive right to the technology - but will suffer in that their technology will not be adopted as part of the free, open standard. We must not see another GIF fiasco. We should require that use of or contribution to a W3C standard requires forgoing all patent claims, present and future, on technologies described in the standard. -- Jonathan Graehl http://jonathan.graehl.org/
Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 02:49:18 UTC