Proposed Patent Policy

Sirs,

W3C standardisation has been an open and clear process in the past, 
which has promoted the web and its infrastructure to the extent that we 
have the worldwide, freely available resource that exists today.

There are countries in the world that do not give the basic education 
and freedom to their peoples that our more enlightened countries do. 
 The current open and free web standards mean that these people do have 
the opportunity to get information from anywhere in the world even 
though their governments may not wish them to do so.

Up till now, the W3C has performed a most worthwhile and intelligent 
service which has benefited the whole world.

It would be awful to see this fine record being ruined by a change in 
policy which allows patent encumbered standards to be required for the 
web.  And the fact that most of the signatories to the proposal come 
from large businesses does not inspire confidence in the intentions of 
the proposers.

Your  proposal states that these patents would be under a "Reasonable 
And Non-Discriminatory" licence.  Well who is to say what is 
"reasonable" - the companies that own these patents? or some court in 
America?

The W3C has managed to keep "lower down the stack" royalty free - is it 
necessary for you to be setting standards higher up the stack where 
proprietary concerns are all too prevalent?  

In the proposal it states that patents for software are being granted at 
record rates by the U.S. PTO.   Does this not make you think that 
incorporating patents into web standards will lead to more and more 
problems in the future?

Please keep the web standards free and open to all.

Sincerely,

    M.J.Keehan

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 16:48:36 UTC