W3C Patent Policy

Dear W3C:
Internet standards should be kept open and royalty-free.

The W3C requirement for disclosure is a good thing.  Any participant in a 
standards working group should be working for a standard that can be used 
by all, and not trying to mislead others so that one participant can profit 
unfairly.

The Royalty-Free Licensing Mode procedures are good.

The Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (RAND) Licensing Mode procedures are 
bad.  It seems contrary to the interests of the internet as a whole to make 
someone pay for using a standard.  In fact, the definition of "standard" 
seems to be in question, because I would say that the terms "proprietary" 
and "standard" are mutually exclusive.  RAND licensing opens the door for 
powerful entities to coerce developers and to hijack the entire internet 
infrastructure for their own ends.

Please keep proprietary software from being disguised as a "standard" with 
the W3C's blessing: keep RAND away from the internet.

Thank you for your attention,
Jon Slaton

Propellor Interactive Design, Inc.
919.544.7750 phone
919.544.7781 fax
919.274.1975 mobile

Received on Tuesday, 9 October 2001 09:19:57 UTC