new RAND licensing model comments

Hello!

I just got aware of the W3C's new licensing model, and I hope that my 
comments don't arrive too late (IIRC, the last call review period closes 
today).

First of all, I want to state here that the period for public comment is 
*WAY* too short for something of that importance, particularly so when the 
almost-no-publicity around this matter is taken into account.

This already makes me feel like the W3C is is falling under corporate 
pressure, because it really looks like you don't really want to see my 
comments about it (and I consider myself part of the public at large, even 
though I've been working in the IT field for the past 10 years).

So to go straight to the point:
I think this proposal is a complete turn-around from W3C's past philosophical 
direction, because it will allow for W3C's standards to be tied to a vendor 
licensing scheme, and will prevent independant implementation of futur W3C's 
standards on a royalty-free basis. As a free software developper, I am 
particularly concerned about this issue, since the futur of my company relies 
heavily on free software development. As such, I can only be completely 
opposed to that proposal.

Thank you for reading me (and sorry for any mistakes in this text, English 
not bieng my native language)
-- 
Nicolas Ouedraogo
C.T.O
Juillerat-Grin S.A
17 rue de la Fontenette
1219 Carouge
Switzerland
email: nicolas@jgsa.ch

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 14:11:08 UTC