"NO" TO RAND LICENSING

Dear W3C Patent Policy Working Group:

PLEASE SAY "NO" TO RAND LICENSING.

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,
Michael Leary
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Received on Sunday, 7 October 2001 15:14:59 UTC