- From: <Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org>
- Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 09:26:58 -0700
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
A few years ago the US Forest Service held a public comments
session to get input from the public about how to manage a
certain section of a river. All they did was show some slides telling
everyone what they were going to do. There was near universal
opposition to the plan but they as much as said they were only
required by law to listen to public comment not act on it.
OK you are not the forest service but it looks like you've already
approved Apple's patented graphic "standard". Why extend
public comment if you are already are acting is if the issue
is settled?
If you want my comment here it is:
You could allow a patented technology ONLY if
The owner allows free use by all parties for any purpose
without need to obtain a license and specifically states
the use in free or GPL'd software is acceptable. And that
such permission will never be revoked.
I would think that the folks at W3.org would be smart enough to see
that getting patents into the WWW is really a way to take
control away from a semi-public organization like W3.org.
Here is an example: Let's say Microsoft gets a patented method
of specifying text formatting into the standard. Say, it does a
nicer job then using tables. Even if they let anyone use this
for a $1.00 fee they have killed it's use in GPL'd software. Next
they would build this into Front Page, IIS and Explorer and then
"own" text formatting just be getting one additional tag approved.
Don't thing that is not the goal of patents.
Received on Monday, 8 October 2001 12:36:12 UTC