[www-patentpolicy-comment] <none>

      Dear W3C Patent Policy Working Group:

      I'm concerned about the recent Patent Policy Framework draft, which
      could allow W3C members to charge royalty fees for technologies
      included in web standards.

      In particular, I object to the inclusion of a "reasonable and
      non-discriminatory" (RAND) licensing option in the proposed policy.
      I believe that the exclusive use of a "royalty-free" (RF) licensing
      model is in the best interests of the Internet community, and that
      RAND licensing would always necessarily exclude some would-be
      implementors, especially among open source and free software
      developers.

      I applaud the W3C for its tradition of providing open-source
      reference implementations and its work to promote a wide variety of
      interoperable implementations of its open standards. The W3C can
      best continue its work of "leading the Web to its full potential"
      by continuing this tradition, and saying no to RAND licensing.

      Sincerely,

      dean blackketter

Received on Friday, 5 October 2001 10:53:41 UTC