Re: New list - www-patentpolicy-comment - maintained by djweitzner@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.

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.

Specifically, wouldn't  this approach effectively eliminate open sournce (Linux)
development? Encouraging competition and the development of  viable alternatives
to predominant product lines is consistant with a free market economy, is it not?

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,

Linda Morris
lmorris@pobox.com