- From: Kevin Donnelly <kevin@dotmon.com>
- Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 23:04:42 +0000
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
I am saddened by the very possibility of the W3C making a decision like this. It is, after all, the outgrowth of a work funded by public money at CERN, which was built on another project funded by public money at various universities and research establishments. How is it that, with all their talk about innovation, private companies were unable to come up with the Internet and the Web? Does it not bode ill for the future of those two entities if they are to be subject to the tender mercies of software patents and their hawkers? If these licenses are to be enforced, how will this affect the third world? Will this be another case of the developed world pulling the ladder up behind it and sucking more money from people who cannot afford to pay the fees large Western corporations may demand? I think the W3C should consider its wider responsibilities as the generally-respected guardian of a global system, and eschew the dubious chance to become a promoter of the distasteful side of globalisation. If it goes ahead with this proposal, it will in my view have lost any claim to be an authoritative arbiter of the future of the Web, and will be risking the balkanisation of this wonderful creation. I for one will support any open-source efforts to create an alternative web which is of the people, for the people and by the people. Kevin Donnelly
Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 18:01:00 UTC