- From: Geoff Wong <geoff@zikzak.net>
- Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 00:32:41 +1000 (EST)
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
To whom it may concern, I'm am writing in regards to the W3C Patent Policy Framework. I am the Technical Director of a small software development company (Zikzak Technologies). I have been developing software for 20 years. I'm am also the holder of a software patent. I am very concerned about the RAND proposal to allow patents into standards. It appears to be a proposal developed and motivated by large corporates which will only benefit those corporations. In the long run it will lead to fragmentation and stifling of network infrastructure standards. Already a large amount of this infrastructure is controlled by too few organisations. ** What is "reasonable" to a US corporate probably borders on ** ** insanity for an individual open source developer residing in a ** ** poorer country. Royalties by their very nature are discriminatory. ** To allow "pay-for" standards to be developed and sanctioned by the W3C is simply to increase the leverage and control these organisations already have. Examine some of the outrageous licensing currently being propogated by large US software corporations if there is any doubt about their desire to control developers and the products being developed. The long term fragmentation and stagnation effect that will almost certainly result from patents in standards can only be detrimental to end uers, small business, open source developers and anyone else trying contribute to or improve existing standards. While the proposal states that RAND is not meant for basic infrastructure, it's very difficult to predict what will be "basic" infrastructure in five or ten years. After all the HTTP protocol became a key protocol very quickly and unexpectedly. Once a patented protocol establishes itself in this type of position future development will be seriously hindered as low margin players and individuals will not be able to afford to develop with or improve upon these standards. You can also be sure certain large software companies (those who seem to have developed the RAND proposal) will be strongly motivated to embed RAND patents within standards in as many key places as possible and ensure this scenario does occur. The web has been successful largely because of open cooperation and adherence (more or less) to a common set of standards. To allow a deliberate wealth divide will be to simply destroy this cooperative effort. A number of these large corporations have shown no respect for the law, once they control standards and the W3C how much respect will they have for developers not in their employment? I strongly urge you to reconsider the RAND proposal and NOT allow any patents, requiring commercial or pay-for licenses, into standards. Geoff Wong geoff@zikzak.com.au
Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 10:31:26 UTC