Tim Berners-Lee, what is your stance on RAND?

Dear Mr. Berners-Lee,

the past week has seen the internet community vociferously protesting the 
W3C's new proposal to introduce a new licensing mode for its 
recommendations known as RAND.

In essence, it allows for the incorporation of patented technologies that 
may require monetary compensation to the patent holder(s), into 
recommendations issued by the W3C. Additionally, the patent holder(s) may 
impose restrictons on how the patent may be implemented - for example, on 
the basis of OS platform.

We, the cybercitizens, would like to know your stance on this issue.

Thanks and regards
Jason Antony

Received on Wednesday, 3 October 2001 23:11:34 UTC