RAND would stifle innovation and hurt consumer choice

The WWW is only a success today because of the free
and open standards that have been in place so far. 
The introduction of fees for standard practices
stifles those that would make software for free, or
those who cannot afford to pay royalties.   Students
wouldn't be able to make alternatives for their
projects, and people would be denied their right to
choose what software they want to use. 

W3 has done a good job of maintaining and creating
standards which have been a great boon so far, and I
commend you on what you have done so far.    

Adopting a standard that is restrictive gives an
unfair advantage to the few at the expense of the
majority.  Please do not recommend the RAND proposal
or vote in favor of it.

If a standard isn't open, then it will create a
competing open standard which will only fragment the
WWW and undo the hard work the W3 has done.   

Thank you for you time,
Shawn Balestracci
Onalaska, WI 54650    





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Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 18:25:38 UTC