RAND Licensing Model -- bad.

As a professional software developer that depends heavily upon the
W3C's open recommendations, I would be heartbroken to see your
recommendations move towards a RAND licensing model.

In order for a standard to flourish, it needs to be royalty-free for *all* to
use, in whichever manner they see fit. By introducing recommendations
with royalty's attached, I believe the W3C will lose its position as
an organization that is out to make the web better for all, into one
that helps line the pocketbooks of certain corporations and
individuals.

I strongly encourage you to stick to royalty-free recommendations. If
your standards were not royalty-free, I would not have taken my
employer down the path of basing the latest version of our product
upon them.
-pete

-- 
(peter.royal|osi)@pobox.com - http://pobox.com/~osi - uin#153025
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