RAND Will Kill Open Source

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


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Received on Wednesday, 3 October 2001 17:09:06 UTC