- From: Luke Melia <luke@lukemelia.com>
- Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 09:32:24 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
- Cc: michael@perlcircus.com, kfrank@oxygen.com, anthony@slapnose.com
To Whom It May Concern: The W3C should *not* be involved in supporting and developing standards that must be licensed and have fees paid in order to implement them. Requiring payment for the use of a single W3C standard, present or future, would undermine the confidence that I place in the W3C, both as an independent developer and web user as well as in my professional life as a web developer for a major TV & internet media operation. The W3C has never been perfect, but I have perceived it as trying to the right thing for the web as a whole. Not just for it's member companies, but for users (disabled and not), for small companies, independent developers, and the relationships that tie all of these groups together. There are organizations whose task it is to invent defacto standards that they can charge money for. These organizations called corporations. Bringing a standard through the W3C gives it credibility that in no small part is derived from it's zero-royalty status. The stakeholders in the web will not benefit from this move, and I call on you to reject this proposition. If you choose to embrace this proposition, it's quite possible that the W3C will lose it's relevance in defining web standards. I know I would begin looking elsewhere. Please do the right thing on this one. Luke Melia New York, New York -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- luke@lukemelia.com http://www.lukemelia.com "I am a work in progress, dressed in the fabric of a world unfolding / Offering me intricate patterns of questions, rhythms that never come clean / And strengths you still haven't seen."--Ani DiFranco 8^>
Received on Wednesday, 3 October 2001 09:32:48 UTC