- From: Anna Au <apdau@yahoo.com>
- Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 14:09:04 -0700 (PDT)
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
The RAND will kill open source software development for web connected applications. Do these volunteer programmers pay, or do the users of "free" software pay? Will I be asked my visa number before I download my next "free" open source software? The world wide web is an international community. The W3C is eroding the rights of citizens worldwide to communicate free of encumbrances, and to create means of such communication freely. With this maneuver the w3c will lose its credibility with the public. We need a W3C that provide cost free individual memberships, perhaps based on contribution to the web. All processes in the W3C must be totally accessible and open to evaluation and debate by the public. Scrap the "member's only" areas. Members uncomfortable with such transparency don't deserve to be involved in setting standards. Software patents are an unfortunate reality. However, any web standards regulatory body that allows patented specifications under anything other than an RF license is spineless and ignorant. Software patents are our real enemy. I am a housewife, so I will use a cooking analogy. What if recipes could be patented? I would be afraid to share my recipes lest they be rendered illegal by the latest patents. Only the large chain restaurants with the resources to patent and pay for patented formulas would survive. Your local cheap unique italian restaurant would be history. As it is recipes cannot be patented, and money is still made from restaurants, catering services, cookbooks, and cooking schools, that sell recipes in one form or another. Does it stop people from coming up with new ways to cook? Do patents foster or hinder innovation? I have said enough on the necessity of patents on software and cooking recipes. Anna Au __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1
Received on Wednesday, 3 October 2001 17:09:06 UTC