Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory ?

The only reasonable and non-discriminatory way of governing standards is to keep them unencumbered by stupid software patents.

If the W3C can't get why this proposal is a complete betrayal of what a standard means, then you become just another sponsored committee, and your "standards" will have no more value than the paper
they're printed on - ( or the (erasable) media that holds them ).

You might make a quick buck in the short term, but don't expect to keep any sort of authority when standards will start to fork and break.

The "Submarine" patent is a joke. It was once again dismissed during the recent Infineon vs Rambus trial. If an entity participates in the creation of a standard without properly disclosing any
related patents it might have, it looses it's right to ask even "reasonable" fees. Rather than a pitiful surrender, W3C should fight to find so called "prior art" against the patents that already
found their way into existing standards as it did in the past.

BTW, what is your vision of "reasonable" ? 10000$ yearly / patent ? 1M$ for the entire portfolio ? 1$/patent/browser ?

I don't have 1M$, and not even 10000$ for each stupid software patent you will plant in the "standards", so, what you call reasonable is discriminatory to me.

It's time for the W3C to make a stand, or retire.

Éric Vinter.

Received on Sunday, 7 October 2001 20:56:29 UTC