Avoid schism -- for the sake of the W3C

The W3C's proposal to allow RAND patents in web standards is misguided and 
foolish.   With the majority of the websites in the world running on Open 
Source software, why would the W3C adopt standards which would be impossible 
for said software to implement?  

The only possible outcome would be a schism.   The community at large will 
develop and adopt their own, open, standards,  and the W3C will exist soley 
as a moribund shill for uninterested corporate entities.   

I ask you too look at the history and note current irrellevence of the Open 
Group.  How successful is Motif, how relevant is it now?  How successful 
would it have been had they not burdened it with royalties?   How successful 
are projects like GNOME and KDE complared to the "Open Standard"  Common 
Desktop Environment?   

If demanding royalties on standards is a successful strategy, why have all 
the major UNIX vendors abandoned both the Open Group and Motif, instead 
backing GTK/GNOME, which is truly open? 

As a developer, and as a business owner whose livelyhood depends on the 
internet, I implore the W3C to disallow RAND patents in standards.  Such 
standards are no standards at all, merely yet another proprietary solution. 

Thank You, 

Michael Welles
Senior Developer / Managing Partner
Bang State, Inc. 
http://www.bangstate.com/

Received on Thursday, 4 October 2001 15:14:11 UTC