- From: Curtis Weyant <dylan38@angelfire.com>
- Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 09:19:29 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
Dear W3C Patent Policy Working Group, It has come to my attention that you are currently considering a Patent Policy Framework for recommendation. I applaud the effort, as I feel that the work of so many brilliant and savvy individuals and groups should be rewarded with the recognition that a patent provides. However, in reviewing the document for myself, along with some of the commentary surrounding it, I have come to the conclusion that your definition of "reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms provided under the RAND license are ... well, discriminatory. The reason I feel this revolves around condition #5 of the statement. This condition, which states that a RAND Lincense "may be conditioned on payment of reasonable, non-discriminatory royalties or fees," violates the manner and philosophy in which the world wide web has been developed. The payment of any fee, even a reasonable fee, is definitively discriminatory. The web is the last, perhaps the only, forum where private and public individuals and groups can meet and exchange products, services, ideas, and efforts on a relatively equal footing. This is because the base technologies that drive the web are monetarily free. The RAND License, by providing for fees, unnecessarily removes a large subset of web developers and hobbyists, who may not be able to pay even "reasonable" fees, who utilize and build sections of the web for personal and public uses. I fear that if the RAND License is part of your final recommendation, the web will turn into a per-service/per-technology fee-based society. Please, do not allow technologies that would benefit everyone become techonologies that are available only to those who have the ability to pay for them. Instead, pursue the course of providing solely for royalty-free (RF) licensing. Thank you for considering my words. Sincerely, Curtis A. Weyant 100 Overland Road Waltham, MA 02451 Get 250 color business cards for FREE! http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/
Received on Friday, 5 October 2001 09:20:08 UTC