RAND licensing and Free Software

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.

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,

Alexandre Dulaunoy,
rue des Tilleuls n°15
B6740 St-Marie-Sur-Semois (Etalle)
Belgium


-- 
Alexandre Dulaunoy		http://www.foo.be/
AD993-RIPE			http://www.ael.be/

Received on Sunday, 7 October 2001 04:17:18 UTC