- From: davis <davis@ameritech.net>
- Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 13:08:12 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
I view the proposed RAND Patent Policy draft with much fear. I am proud of the work to date of the W3C in providing protocols that alow open and free competition and inovation. It is important that core technologies for communications remain as open as posible. I regret that by the nature of computers the market forces tend toward monopoly. Without strong open (free) standards for data exchange and interoperability there will be no chance of change in this situation. The proposal has a few intereseting statments that cannot be enforced with the proposed RAND model. The statement "Importance of interoperability for core infrastructure, lower down the stack: Preservation of interoperability and global consensus on core Web infrastructure is of critical importance. So it is especially important that the Recommendations covering lower-layer infrastructure be implementable on an RF basis. Recommendations addressing higher-level services toward the application layer may have a higher tolerance for RAND terms." does not define the scope of "core Web infrastructure" which certainly will vary with time. Currently voice technology could be concidered non-core but in the future due to technology growth it will be a core components in the future. The issue is that "core" is a dynamic domain and cannot be defined. Another issues stated as a goal is "Access for general public (not just Members): Licensing terms for essential technology should be available on a non-discriminatory basis to W3C Members and non-Members alike." How do you define or enforce a non-discriminatory liencens. Clearly any licence that charges a rolaty or fee is disciminatory by it's very nature. I relaise that this polecy is an attempt to pay for the work of developing standards and technology. Some patent issues should be addressed but the web is far to new to begine endorceing patents by including them in standards. As a minimum a resonable time limt for RAND licensing could be invoced where the technologies would become royalty free after 3 years. This would give companies time to recoup investments and gain a comercial advantage while still allowing freedom for smaller buisinesses and the free software movement. Douglas L. Davis Ph.D.
Received on Monday, 8 October 2001 13:16:44 UTC