- From: Sheryl Coe <web@reportica.com>
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 15:22:47 -0400
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
Dear www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org, In reference to your attempts to label the use of patents as 'non-discrimatory': http://www.w3.org/2001/08/16-PP-FAQ.html#[2-4] I suggest that very essence of the job of W3C as a 'standards body' is to _discriminate_. Your duty is to choose standards that will serve the community, and pass over those that will hobble it with proprietary requirements. Those in charge of this Patent Committee have abrogated the search for community standards, and replaced it with a search for corporate profits. Go ahead... Discriminate! "dis·crim·i·nate 1. To make a clear distinction; distinguish: discriminate among the options available. To make sensible decisions; judge wisely." You are On Notice: If any individual technical process, however efficient, is PATENTED, we must DISCRIMINATE against it on the basis of that patent alone -- despite any claimed or real technical merits. Why? Because Freedom of Access matters more than any fleeting technical expedience. In the long run, Open Standards will always result in a more robust technical solution. We REQUIRE free access to standard technologies. The process MATTERS. You propose a benign dictatorship. We decline. Access to Open Standards is, in the words of Franklin, an 'essential liberty'. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary efficiency deserve neither liberty nor efficiency." Mangled from Ben Franklin, ~1784 Of course, the real danger here is not to our liberty, but to the relevance of the W3C. Respecfully, Sheryl Coe
Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 16:07:43 UTC