Shameless attempt to commercialise the standards process

The proposed changes to the W3 policy on patents seem to be a
shameless attempt to commercialise the standards process, and
imply a fundamental lack of integrity on the part of the W3.
In the early browser wars, the W3 attemped to retain the moral
high-ground by maintaining a truly vendor neutral standards
process. It's a pity that all this good work is now going to be
destroyed.

As a developer who works on the development of an Open Source
browser Konqueror, I am appalled at your proposed changes. It
seems obvious that the inclusion of patented technologies in
W3 standards will make it difficult (if not impossible) to
fully support those standards in an open source product.

If the W3 is now unable to provide a neutral standards process
then perhaps it's time to replace the W3 with a new body that
can.

Richard Moore
rich@kde.org

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 13:15:20 UTC