- From: Pete Black <pete.black@metering.co.nz>
- Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 11:19:42 +1200
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
The day the W3C allows patented web technologies to be promoted as 'Open Standards' is the day the W3C ceases to be a credible standards body for the web. The reason the web is so useful, popular and widely accessible is because of it's free and open nature. Anyone can write software to operate with HTTP protocols, and anyone is free to write software to distribute, process and view HTML, SVG and the like. Nobody without a vested interest in a particular corporations' domination and profit opportunities in a given area could possibly argue that restricting access to web technologies (which is exactly what patented technologies being promoted as 'standards' will acheive) will increase the viability of the web as a communications medium. And if the W3C are not interested in increasing the viability of the web as a communications medium, what is it they are interested in? HTTP wasn't a runaway success because You had to pay Microsoft 5 bucks every time you put a <P> tag in a document. I do not support this move at all, and predict the adoption of such a measure will quickly lead to the irrelevance of W3C standards as a benchmark for 'How the Web should Work' -- Pete Black Systems Administrator Total Metering Ltd/Elect Data Services pete.black@metering.co.nz
Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 19:15:10 UTC