Please re-think patent policy.

Dear W3C Patent Policy Working Group:

Please don't kill off open-source and free software on the Internet. The
recent Patent Policy Framework draft looks like it would do exactly
that, by allowing W3C members to charge royalty fees for technologies
included in web standards.

The inclusion of a "reasonable and non-discriminatory" (RAND) licensing
option in the proposed policy would hand over control of internet
standards and software to the large, patent-holding companies.

Truly open standards are royalty free, allowing everyone to work 
together, including both the big companies and the little guys.


Sincerely,

Elliott Kirschling

Received on Friday, 5 October 2001 00:33:42 UTC