W3C betrayal of principles

Please explain how RAND is supposed to improve the lot
of anyone except licence holders?

This seems like such an obvious sell-out by W3C that I am
shocked and outraged almost beyond speech.  It is such a
clear betrayal of all the W3C was formed to support and
protect that I am forced to wonder at the motives.

I personally find it offensive and suspicious that the
Last Call period is so brief (6 weeks) for such a far-reaching
policy change, that once the Last Call ends it is final,
and that the dissemination of the opening of the Last Call
was done in such a way as to achieve virtually no community
penetration or awareness.

This sounds preposterously like a situation in the U.S.
(or possibly it was the Massachusetts) legislature a few
years ago, which would have resulted in the representatives
automatically receiving a substantial pay rise if the issue
was *not* voted.
-- 
Ken Coar
VP and director, Apache Software Foundation