- From: David R. Dick <drd@mv.mv.com>
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 14:28:18 -0400 (EDT)
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
I always thought W3 was an organization that was too good to be true: a shining light in the dark conflict between entities that would try to enforce their view of the Internet and the Web on the user public. With this new change, W3 will have nearly abdicated its role to keep things open. When patented technologies are allowed into standards, a perfect form of tying is achieved: anyone who wants to use the standard must pay some entity. This will KILL open source implementations. This will lock users into commercial software, and we all know how little competition there is in certain segments of the software market. If the Internet becomes as important as we all think it will, this dramatic reduction in user choice will assume even more significance. In this country, governments are the only ones that can legally impose taxes. The allowing of patent restrictions (RAND on not) on essential Web/Internet protocols comes very close. David Dick Internet user since before the Web
Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 14:28:25 UTC