comment

   As a software developer and an Internet user, I am alarmed and
disturbed by the changes being proposed to the W3Cs patent policy.

   The royalty free standards endorsed by the W3C have provided a
basis for both free software and commercial software to work together
creating benefits for users, developers, and vendors.  They have
fostered widespread information sharing and allowed developers and
vendors to support standard methods of interchanging data.

   By making this change the W3C risks marginalizing its role as
an organization fostering interoperability and undermines its ability
to lead the web to its full potential.  

   As a developer, I cannot support a policy which has the possibility
of again dividing people into two groups: those who can pay to
implement a standard and those who cannot implement a standard.

   I will not accept promises or pledges that the new policy will not
prevent any individual from implementing W3C standards.  I will
recommend against the implementation and use of any standard which is
licensed under royalty.  I will work towards solutions which can be
freely implemented and used by everyone.  This is, in my view, a
necessity.

  I therefore strongly urge that the W3C remain a strong, vendor=
neutral body for the implementation of high quality royalty-free
standards.

			Sincerely, 
		         Rob Melby

----
Robert Melby
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp:     ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!gt4255a
Internet: async@cc.gatech.edu

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 05:39:19 UTC