Patent Policy Comment

I just found out about this and must leave soon, but I must comment on
this.  Please excuse the haste in which this is written.

I am very concerned that by allowing patented software and policies to
become the basis for or be included in standards, it will become
impossible for ordinary people to implement standards-compliant software.

It seems likely to me that this could lead to a situation where certain
software would not be able to be kept up to date with W3C standards.  I
am thinking of free software, like Apache, which would not be able to
pay large sums in licensing fees.  Effectively, the Web would be owned
by the corporate interests who managed to patent some technology that was
required by a standard.

In short, I hope that the W3C will require that technology built into
standards be made available for use on the Web at no charge.  Let the
implementations fight it out on their own merits.

Regards,
David H. Silber

-- 
  David H. Silber                                 david@SilberSoft.com
  President & Chief Programmer                          (301) 230-2659
  Silber Software Enterprises, L.C.         http://www.SilberSoft.com/

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 18:29:29 UTC