- From: David Andrew Michael Noelle <dave@straylight.org>
- Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 13:01:56 -0400 (EDT)
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
World Wide Web Consortium Patent Policy Working Group www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org 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. As an Open Source web developer, I cannot object strongly enough 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 personally do not have and do not foresee having the resources to pay any licensing fee for following the standards most widely supported on the Internet, regardless of how "reasonable" those fees may seem to a major corporation that holds their patent. Any licensing fee would not only be discriminatory, it would put me out of business, because I could not afford all of the fees for all of the various technologies I need to make a single product work. Small developers and the Open Source community are already fighting an uphill battle against proprietary standards implemented by large corporations. Since we cannot implement their proprietary technologies, we cannot make any products that are compatible with theirs. If they were to open some of their standards, but require a licensing fee that was "reasonable" for other major corporations to pay, the internet community might benefit from the improved interoperability of their products, but at the expense of driving small, Open Source, and free developers completely out of large areas of the market. If the basic standards that currently make the Internet possible were suddenly to require a licensing fee, or the Internet were to evolve in such a way as to incorporate new patented technologies as a basic requirement for interoperability, developers like myself would effectively be barred from any Internet development. 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, -Dave Noelle, dave@Straylight.org -the Villa Straylight, http://www.straylight.org
Received on Friday, 5 October 2001 13:02:23 UTC