- From: Mark Ellis <deadplanet@geocities.com>
- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 01:31:42 -0700
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
- Cc: deadplanet@geocities/com.visi.com
The purpose of an open standard is to allow interoperability among independently-developed implementations of that standard. The purpose of a patent is to empower the patent holder to suppress independently-developed applications of technology described in the patent's claims. A patent is therefore a legal mechanism for closing what might otherwise become an open standard. Is there evidence that any patented software technology has such intrinsic value as to be necessarily superior to any non-patented alternative? What can be done one way in software can be done another way. Microsoft has shown us that the monetary value of ``intellectual property'' in the software industry comes not from having exclusive rights to better technology than is available to other developers, but from the power it allows over interoperability. In the hands of a dominant firm, that power marginalizes competitors and amplifies market power into monopoly. The W3C's new Patent Policy Framework threatens the Consortium's own legitimacy by sacrificing the stated goals of interoperability, universal access, and decentralization to the commercial interests of particular members. The requirement that license fees be ''reasonable and non-discriminatory'' is inadequate protection for an open Web. What is a ``reasonable'' license fee for freely-redistributable software? The amount doesn't matter. If fees must be paid, someone has to know how many copies have been distributed. Accountants have to keep track of money coming in and money paid to patent holders. Lawyers have to dot the i's and cross the t's of the software developer's relationships with patent holders and end users. Software companies can deal with such things - free software developers cannot. We don't have to become deeply involved in conspiracy theories to note the affiliation of the first-named author of the Framework, to recall the ``Halloween Document'' describing possible Microsoft strategies against open-source software, and to envision a possible connection to Microsoft's re-invention of itself as a provider of XML-based Web services. Like Internet stocks, Internet standards have value if and only if people believe in them. Any formal standard that can be taken seriously must be backed by an organization that has some legitimacy as a standards body. The W3C has had undeniable legitimacy: founded and headed by Tim Berners-Lee, it has unique authority over the HTTP and HTML standards, and its standardization efforts for XML and other technologies have been widely accepted. Now, the W3C faces a sad dilemma. Many of the W3C's full members, paying fifty thousand dollars a year for their seats at the table, may be eager to buy into a Microsoft E-Commerce Co-Prosperity Sphere, and may want the proposed new policy very much. But the responses that the W3C has already received show that many of the Web's foot soldiers - and some of its greatest innovators - will stop believing in the W3C as a legitimate proponent of standards if that policy takes effect. Facilitating the creation of patent pools and cartels is incompatible with ``leading the Web to its full potential.'' Mark Ellis
Received on Thursday, 11 October 2001 02:27:14 UTC