RAND policy change

I always thought W3 was an organization that was too
good to be true: a shining light in the dark conflict
between entities that would try to enforce their view
of the Internet and the Web on the user public.

With this new change, W3 will have nearly abdicated
its role to keep things open.

When patented technologies are allowed into standards,
a perfect form of tying is achieved: anyone who wants
to use the standard must pay some entity.  This will KILL
open source implementations.  This will lock users
into commercial software, and we all know how little
competition there is in certain segments of the software
market.

If the Internet becomes as important as we all think
it will, this dramatic reduction in user choice will
assume even more significance.

In this country, governments are the only ones that
can legally impose taxes.  The allowing of patent restrictions
(RAND on not) on essential Web/Internet protocols comes
very close.

David Dick
Internet user since before the Web

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 14:28:25 UTC