- From: Daniel Phillips <phillips@bonn-fries.net>
- Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 19:38:35 +0200
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
We can see this W3C initiative not only as an attack on the traditional underpinnings of the internet, but through that as an attack on open source software such as Linux. Consider these quotes from Microsoft's internal "Halloween II" memo: "Beat commodity protocols / services" "Linux's homebase is currently commodity network and server infrastructure. By folding extended functionality into today's commodity services and create new protocols, we raise the bar & change the rules of the game." and later: "The effect of patents and copyright in combatting Linux remains to be investigated." This W3C initiative seems all too well aligned with those observations. Perhaps we should focus on the possibility that Microsoft has exercised undue influence in this particular W3C initiative, and perhaps this is an question that should be examined within the scope of the current anti-trust procedings. It would serve Microsoft's purposes very well indeed to engineer new, patent-based, barriers to entry for internet-based applications, and at the same time erode the long-term credibility of the W3C as a standards setting body. -- Daniel
Received on Monday, 1 October 2001 13:38:44 UTC