open standards are the best way to encourage innovation and interoperability

Open standards are what the Internet is based on and what have made it so successful. Anyone can create hardware and software to interact with this global system without having to pay licencing fees (which, like in any monopoly situation, are always excessive). The basic mechanisms which facilitate the transfer of information shouldn't be in any way closed and anyone should be able to use them without having to pay. Allowing patented standards effectively gives control of the Internet to private corporations and may lead to the fragmenting of the Internet as people will seek to develop their own 'standards' to avoid licencing fees and restricted technology. 
I ask the W3C staff to ignore the large corporations who seek to control the base technology of the Internet for their own selfish and profit motivated aims and to make a decision for the benefit of the majority of Internet users and only allow open standards.

Tim Edwards

Received on Friday, 5 October 2001 09:55:06 UTC