Patent Policy

"... 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