- From: jonathon <islamia@swbell.net>
- Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 19:23:16 -0600
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
My objection centers around Section 3 of the W3C's proposed patent policy <http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-patent-policy-20021114/#sec-Requirements>. Item 3 of that section says that the royalty-free license may "may be limited to implementations of the Recommendation, and to what is required by the Recommendation". That is a "field of use" restriction. The problem is the interaction of such a "field of use" restriction with Section 7 of GPL <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#TOC3>. Under Section 7, the "field of use" restriction is a "conditions are imposed on you [the distributor of GPL'ed software] that contradict the conditions of this License". The "conditions of this license" require, for example, that those receiving distributions of GPL'ed software have the right to run the program for any purpose (Section 0), the right to modify it for any purpose (Section 2), etc. Any of these "purposes" could easily practice the teachings of the patent beyond what the "field of use" restriction allows. Thus, regardless of who makes the changes, the result either shuts down distribution or forces the original developer to abandon GPL. Both outcomes are very unfortunate. I care about the right of Free Software developers to implement all future web standards. Please eliminate the "field of use" restrictions! Thank you for your attention. Curtis J. Tromm 1315 Post Office Street Galveston, Texas 77550 -- not knowing truth does not diminish truth
Received on Saturday, 4 January 2003 09:31:14 UTC