Re: W3C Patent Policy: Bad for the W3C, bad for business, bad for users

I concur with Alan Cox.

...

$5 per user for this, $1.50 for that, $20 per user over
here, $3.45 per user over there, and $1000 per developer for
whatever.  I'm deeply concerned with this.  Not only beacuse
of pricing (which will drive me out of business); but
beacuse of the bookkeeping.  How am I to track down who I
owe and under what terms?  This proposal is designed to keep
the little players like myself out of the game.

We all know that the patent process is very much impaired...
let us not reward this process by giving it more legitimacy
than it already has.  Allowing a broken process to filter
into the W3C's approval system is not proper.

If the W3C does move forward with something like this, a
patent license clearinghouse should be part of the proposal.
Otherwise it's hard to know who has the cards and how they
are being played.  Further, without a clearing house, it
further disadvantages us "small guys" who ho decide in the
future to play the patent game and collect our "just value"
from the big guys.

Best,

Clark C. Evans

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 12:54:18 UTC