I see on w3.org that you are seeking comments on the W3C's new patent policy. While the W3C's requirement that patents be licensed royalty-free is commendable, there is a small but significant problem: Under the current policy, standards may include patented technology which is licensed royalty-free only within the "field of use" of web browser technology. Unfortunately, both of the web browsers I use (Mozilla and Galeon) are distributed to me under the GNU General Public License, which forbids the inclusion of patented technology unless said technology is unconditionally royalty-free; neither could legally implement a W3C standard which would forbid the distribution of parts of their source code for inclusion in unrelated software. Therefore, I urge you to adopt a patent policy which forbids the adoption of patent-encumbered standards unless the patents are licensed for unconditional royalty-free use. Thank you for your time and attention. -- Andrew Moise <moise@nauticom.net>Received on Friday, 3 January 2003 16:03:35 GMT
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