Comments on patent Policy

Major technology companies are pushing a key Internet standards 
organization, the World Wide Web Consortium, to adopt standards that have 
been patented. This is a grotesque idea, and it would damage the 
foundations of the open, royalty-free standards that have marked the rise 
of the Net as a useful part of our lives.

The Web works because of its openness, not despite it. So when Microsoft, 
Philips, IBM and other patent holders try to ram through a fundamental 
shift -- to a system whereby the big players might be able to collect rents 
on everything that moves online -- they are attacking the foundation of the 
Net and its usefulness.

The consortium's standards-setting work was founded in openness. It has 
promoted non-proprietary systems to ensure that all players could have a 
level field. To abandon history and precedent would be to damage the Web 
itself.

Sincerely,
Cathy Gage