- From: Keith Winston <lessthan0@operamail.com>
- Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 12:06:07 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
I think it is very important for all W3C standards to be royalty-free. Software patents have proven to be abused by the patent holders to force unreasonable payments from developers. Even if a patent holder initially provides royalty-free use of a technology in the beginning, they often come back later demanding for large payments once the technology is in wide spread use. A perfect example of this is Unisys and the GIF image format. Publishing standards that incorporate patents also provide undue leverage to patent holders in controlling the direction of web development, restrict the adoption of standards, and in no way can be good for the web. I urge you to make all W3C standards royaly-free now and forever. Sincerely, Keith Winston Millennium Consulting Corp.
Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 12:06:38 UTC