RE: Official statement from Microsoft concerning CSS, XSL and US Pate nt No. 5,860,073

On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Chris Wilson wrote:

> I'd like to say I think that will happen, but I doubt it.  If you read
> pretty much any other Member Submission to the W3C, you'll find that the
> boilerplate says pretty much exactly the same thing - that you will be able
> to obtain a license to use that IP, in exchange for reciprocal rights.
> That's true of XSL, for example, as well as PGML, VML, and most of the rest
> of the Submissions to the W3C (http://www.w3.org/Submission/).  Even before
> this patent flap, you would still "need to obtain a license" to use, e.g.,
> XSL, because the companies who made the original Submission said you had to
> (not just Microsoft).  I think this is an issue to be raised with the W3C
> and how it works.

That always has been the problem since the W3C took over internet
standards as applied to the world wide web.  And you're right, that is a
problem with the W3C and how it works, but nobody listened when people
objected to the structure when it was created, and I don't see it changing
now, no matter how much we bitch about it.  No use digging up old bones to
gnaw on now.

Matt