[www-patentpolicy-comment] <none>

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. In particular this appears to be a total shift from your past histroy. The Internet needs to be an open and free forum with open and free standards.

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,

Mark Holm
5554 Eagle View Way
Sacramento, CA 95842


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Received on Monday, 8 October 2001 11:35:53 UTC