Re: RAND licensing

	I am not a software developer, merely a user, but I cannot help but be
impressed by the torrent of e-mail -- mainly from developers --condemning
the RAND proposal, as it seems now to be known. 

	One other thing has leaped out from the correspondence on RAND and I feel
that it is a point that, even at the risk of offending some, must be made
explicitly. If this proposal were to carry, it would  -- I am quite certain
-- serve as yet another red rag to the bull of anti-Americanism that so
preoccupies  us in these days of September. Consider the view from there,
rather than here: yet again, America seeks to assert control over an aspect
-- a major aspect, surely -- of the lives and the future of powerless
millions, without consultation and without regard for consequences, aside
from megabucks ... with only the bland face and a shrug of the shoulders to
accompany the explanatory "business is business". 

	The corporations and their creatures take a very long view and they see in
that perspective not only the immediate changes they can effect in the
world of the  Web but also how long that effect may continue to work to
their advantage. It behooves the W3C to remember the farsightedness of its
own original principles and to reassert them with a firm sense of purpose,
a purpose of preservation and resistance against heedless, predatory
incursions. 

	The world will be grateful.

	James ARTHURS

__________________________________________________

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 17:37:38 UTC