- From: Matt Kennedy <matt@jumpline.com>
- Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 00:22:19 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
I have to agree with the sentiment that an extension of the comment deadline is necessary. The RAND proposal has quietly moved along and the public and development community at large is just now learning of it. Given the large amount of negative commentary appearing in this forum in the last day or so, it would seem that many people concerned with web standards are as taken aback as I am with this turn of events. Given the headaches that have emerged in the last few years from patent conflicts in regards to web standards, de facto and otherwise (GIFs, MP3, and Hyperlinks come quickly to mind), any change from the RF policy of the W3 has the potential to do more harm than good. As such, any change must be done with care. Thorough discussion and community involvement is necessary. An extension of the discussion deadline is essential to this taking place, in order to get past the knee-jerk, negative reaction to this proposal and allow for well thought and constructive critique to take place with public involvement of the web community. A well defined patent policy framework is a worthwhile endeavor, but the current working draft needs more review and discussion by a wider audience. Many good points are made in this draft, particularly the points identified in section 2. However, I find little here that will help the promotion of web standards and mitigate the negative impact that patents can potentially have on those standards. In particular, the role of 'Good Faith Disclosure' defined in section 7.2 is a bit disconcerting as the lack of such good faith has often been at the root of patent problems in the past. In summary, I believe the proposal as it stands now, has the potential to have a severe negative impact on point 4 of the 'W3 in 7 points': W3C, a vendor-neutral organization, promotes interoperability by designing and promoting open (non-proprietary) computer languages and protocols that avoid the market fragmentation of the past. This is achieved through industry consensus and encouraging an open forum**** for discussion. Please keep this forum open for discussion. Regards, Matt Kennedy Jumpline.com, Inc.
Received on Monday, 1 October 2001 00:15:24 UTC