Comment on royalty-free patent policy

Bonjour,

I write you to compliment the W3C on the
courageous position it takes by defining
its royalty-free patent policy (as of
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-patent-policy-20021114/).

More and more economy studies show that
software patents hinder innovation. Also,
information is the fuel of our knowledge-
based economy, and the easier and cheaper
diffusion of information, through open
standards and protocols which put no burden
on information processing software (browsers,
platers, ...), is the best way to encourage
prosperity and growth.

Any other form of policy regarding W3C
standards would have endangered this
growth, and most probably lead to the
creation of another normalisation body, at
the end ruining the high consideration that
the W3C has as a collaborative, public-oriented,
world-wide body.

Open cooperation and competition is the strength
that has permitted the creation and spreading of
the Internet. We should not forget that, in spite
of the greed and short-term profit views of some.



Francois PELLEGRINI,
Assistant Professor, ENSEIRB engineering school of computer science,
Researcher at INRIA,
Vice-president of ABUL -- Bordeaux Libre SOftware User Group

Received on Friday, 15 November 2002 03:31:15 UTC