Eurolinux statement on W3C RAND proposal

Eurolinux urges W3C to reject RAND patent standards

   The Eurolinux Alliance joins the [1]statements of its member
   organisations AFUL and SSLUG in urging the W3C to reject using
   non-royalty-free patents as basis of any W3C standard.

   In particular, the Eurolinux Alliance considers the inclusion of
   "RAND" licensing to be incompatible with the W3C's [2]mission
   statement to "lead the Web to its full potential as forum for
   information, commerce, communication and collective understanding". In
   addition to the many arguments that already have been put forth, from
   our perspective we would like to emphasize that:

     * The W3C's justification to introduce RAND licensing into W3C
       standards due to the fait accompli of business method patents in
       the US does not take into account that lawmakers in Europe, as a
       result of [3]opposition from 90,000 individuals and 200
       companies, in November 2001, have abstained from removing the
       non-patentability of computer programs in the European Patent
       Convention.
     * In these [4]objections by European business, international
       economists and individual against patents on computer programs
       interoperability concerns are an important argument. Even onto
       producers situated in countries where on computer programs are not
       allowed, RAND patents on W3C standards impose trade barriers to be
       interoperability on the basis of W3C standards for export into
       countries that allow patents on computer programs.

References

  1. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0134.html
  2. http://www.w3.org/
  3. http://petition.eurolinux.org/
  4. http://petition.eurolinux.org/consultation/

Received on Monday, 8 October 2001 17:26:29 UTC