- From: Brent E. Edwards <chipuni@hypersurf.com>
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 11:51:39 -0700
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear W3, As a programmer, I absolutely and totally opposed the option of allowing RAND patents to be part of W3 standards. Such a change could kill software development by creating a 'standard' which is monopolized by a company, then raising the price of entry for the standard. In your consensus points, you state that 'recommendations addressing higher-level services...may have a higher tolerance for RAND terms.' This consensus is very short-sighted. What is a higher-level service now will become the basis for even higher-level services in the future. Putting these on a RAND basis will greatly limit the chances of developing these higher-level services. Millions of server and client computers (including the one that I am on right now) depend on the free availability of W3 standards. A move to make some standards depend on proprietary, patented algorithms will kill this vibrant industry. -- Brent Edwards -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE7t2nEeisaO3L2Z4URAvSvAKChYHSf41yUjYwzuj5dRvVFW5JRrACdHwGz KL6vssHVRazxrNiBwLdMXlk= =UxIG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 14:49:01 UTC