- From: Michael Welles <mike@bangstate.com>
- Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 15:14:02 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
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