So-called "Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory" licensing IS discriminatory ... from Paul David Lukes on 2001-10-01 (www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org from October 2001)

From: Paul David Lukes <pdlukes@luchie-chowchows.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 16:19:28 +0100
To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
Message-Id: <01100117060302.00795@luchie-chowchows.demon.co.uk>

... by definition!

It discriminates against poor people, small companies,
and poorer regions of the world.

Does "Non-discriminatory" licensing outlaw quantity discounts,
or large on-off buyouts which favour larger companies?
I see no mention of this.

There is a secondary form of discrimination:
when a small company is being discriminated against,
will they sue the large corporation?
Will they then go bust waiting for the W3C and the lawyers to stop arguing?

While I can see that making money out of implementations
of open standards is perfectly reasonable,
the idea of having so-called open standards licensed is just plain wrong.

	P.D. Lukes.

Received on Monday, 1 October 2001 12:08:37 UTC