W3C - Please preserve the Web!

Dear W3C,

Please consider that requiring payment for the use of even one of your
standards would undermine the confidence that I and thousands of other
independent web content producers around the world place in your
organization.

As somone whose livelihood is the World Wide Web, I have always relied on
the W3C to provide a model of interoperability and accessibility.  But in
the current proposition, I see the beginnings of a different kind of model:
a web where the right to access, of any sort, is determined solely by one's
ability to
pay.

I do not see how independent software developers will benefit from being
forced to remit royalties in order to comply with W3C standards.  I do not
see how the
blind or otherwise disadvantaged, or those who hold unpopular views, or
the myriad artists and musicians, who use the web daily to reach their
audiences or
interact with the rest of the world, will benefit.

Royalty-bearing web standards benefit only those who collect the royalties.

If you adopt this proposition, I will immediately start to look elsewhere
for web standards
that represent the internet values I know, love, and want to preserve.

Please reconsider.

Noah Sussman
Brooklyn, New York

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 17:10:33 UTC