RAND licensing is a bad idea

This would be a more organized missive if I hadn't discovered that the
W3C was considering RAND licensing on the very day that the request for
public comments closed.

The W3C must not start promoting standards that are not freely available
to all.  Why not?  Because they are the only group with significant
influence that is not doing so now.

The companies that are members of the W3C are fully capable of
protecting their own interests; they are fully capable of using powerful
marketing departments to promote their proprietary technologies, and
make individual consumers decide, "Yes, that is something *I* need as
part of my Web experience."  They are capable of using their marketing
departments to make consumers view their products as "standards".  They
should not have the W3C assisting them in this.

These companies do not *need* the W3C to promote their commercial
interests.  The people who *do* need the W3C are those who do not have
big marketing departments because they are not out for profit.  The
infrastructure of the Web is too important to be left only to those
trying to get rich from it.

	-jc

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 19:49:37 UTC