- From: Emery, Pat <pemery@grci.com>
- Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 16:05:46 -0400
- To: "'www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org'" <www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org>
"... the W3C must have a clear and effective policy to address the inevitable increase in patent issues that will come before individual Working Groups and the Membership as a whole." http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-patent-policy-20010816/, W3C Patent Policy Framework,W3C Working Draft 16 August 2001 Factors such as those spelled out in section 2.2 of the document can be satisfied without the need for RAND. Royalty-Free has always been the spirit of the web as recognized in the end of section 1 of the above referenced draft patent policy framework. "In developing a new patent policy for W3C Activities, our goal is to affirm the Web community's longstanding preference for Recommendations that can be implemented on a royalty-free (RF) basis." It's not a preference, it's the spirit of the web and to allow self-interested parties to corrupt the policies of the W3C organization to include such ugliness as RAND dishonors the greatness of the web and the efforts of those who contributed to it freely. It is the gauntlet of "information freedom" that has been cast down at the feet of the W3C. Grandmother's, college students, big businesses and small, people in rich and in poor country's, people of all languages, and people who live in countries where freedom is very regulated have all signed up to receive the benefits of the free web. RAND violates the unwritten contract they all thought they had when they joined the web community. My two cents might not make a hill of beans but I am standing up and saying, "Please don't do this". I make my living as a System Engineer. I am certainly not against patents but there are right things and wrong things to do. There is a line in the sand and this proposal takes the first step across that line. Pat Emery The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of anybody else.
Received on Thursday, 4 October 2001 16:06:00 UTC