Objection to the Proposed W3 Consortium "Royalty-Free" Patent Policy

I applaud the W3C from rejecting RAND licensing of W3C standards but the 
current proposal of allowing patent holders to place limitations on the field 
of use of such patented technologies is nearly as bad!

Such a restriction would make the writing of GPL licence software that did not 
contravene such patents.

Breaking the strong links between the World Wide Web and genuinely free 
software would have the effect of fragmenting the web into incompatible 
factions. The greed of 'patent' holders should not allowed to wreak such 
havoc. Please come to your senses and insist that official standards should 
be free for anybody to implement to whatever end they choose. To do otherwise 
would destroy the very basis for the existence of the web an its continued 
evolution. 
-- 
Martin Houston				Linux Consultant
mhouston@deluxe-tech.co.uk		Phone: 07970 850961

Received on Thursday, 26 December 2002 12:27:50 UTC