Regarding the RAND license...

As a professional software developer making a living from being able to
develop platform-agnostic applications for the web, I am extremely 
alarmed to
see the W3C's proposed stance on patents & standards. With the proposed
changes in place the web will become more and more a showcase for large
corporations and will extinguish the independence and innovation that have
made the internet freely accessibly to anyone with a web browser (of any
flavour) and a dial-up account.

Indeed, with the proposals in place the web risks becoming a tool of a few
corporations (I think I don't need to list them specifically) and 
innovation
will largely be shut down. After a while, the W3C itself will cease to be
relevant, and I can hardly believe that is what is intended.

I urge you, therefore, to reject these proposals and show your 
organisation to
be one of integrity to the ideals of Tim Berners-Lee et al; be proud 
that you
are not just another tool of big business.

/Mats

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 20:30:43 UTC