Who pays?

What's going on here?

Like the intent of W3C was as far as I knew to provide infrastructure based 
on open public standards, where the only "entry barrier" was that of 
adhering to these standards (For example, following the HTML or whatever 
specification).

From the proposed RAND and related "offerings" one can conclude that if it 
is all accepted that someone has to pay (and most probably pay again and 
again) for access to these standards. What is this, a method of owning the 
"keys to the kingdom" of the internet (and wherever else this leads) for 
whoever can litigate themselves there?

This smacks of an attempt to block/hinder innovations, rather than to 
provide them with a fair and level playing field.

Furthermore, there appears to be NO research documentation on how this will 
work in reality. Where are the cost/benefit analyses and case studies?

Lastly, WHO benefits from this?


Regards
Andrew Williams

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Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 21:18:19 UTC