Re: W3C Patent Policy: Bad for the W3C, bad for business, bad for users

hello W3C

Standards should be Free for all to implement and use. I agree here with 
Alax Cox.
And i speak from experience. For example: i have worked at a Telecom 
Provider in Inda. None of the engineers there had access to the ITU 
recommendations.. neither did the engineering college that i attended. And 
so, there are few if any companies / enterpreneurs in India in the field 
of Telecommunications. 

The suppliers / vendors have also maintained a very restrictive training 
and documentation license.. For example: one International Switching 
vendor is charging US $ 100,000 per student per day for training and 
documentation !!!!

But lets look at the other side of things: Internet. The first time i came 
across the Internet was in 1995, it was like a breath of fresh air.. i had 
full access to all the standards !!! at IETF, i could not believe it !! it 
was like coming to America after Russia !! And it has been like that ever 
since... I have given up a career in Communications to be in the field of 
Internet.. encouraged by Open source and free software projects which 
encourage collaboration and sharing among people. 

Now, we have a number of small enterprises in India which work on various 
Internet enabled applications and tools be it VOIP or Instant Messaging or 
Email ..... all this has been possible due to the free availability of 
standards and protocols used on the Internet.

I hope the W3C recognises the spirit of the internet.. sharing and 
collaboration, and prevents this Patent Policy from happening..

thanks
venu
---
Venugopal M
IT Consultant 
Antarix e Applications Ltd.
40, Bazullah Road, 
T Nagar, Chennai
India 600 017
www: http://www.antarix.net
Email: vma@antarix.net
Phone: +91 44 820 3554

Received on Monday, 1 October 2001 06:18:40 UTC