Patent Policy Working Group

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,Curtis Hawthorne


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