www-patentpolicy-comment

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.

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,
       James Marjie
       email - jidatlah@sandyvalley.net

Received on Tuesday, 9 October 2001 04:16:11 UTC