[Resend] So nearly there...

[The original copy of this message has not appeared in the archives. 
This made me concerned that it had got lost in transit, so I am taking 
the opportunity to resend it. Apologies to anyone who receives it twice.]

I would like to thank the W3C Patent Policy Working Group for the large 
strides it has made in the direction of making it possible for Free 
Software to implement W3C standards covered by patents held by 
participating organisations. The removal of the badly-named "Reasonable 
and Non-Discriminatory" option was a courageous move which I would applaud.

As the members of the group are no doubt aware, Free Software 
implementations are usually at the forefront of the implementation of 
W3C standards, and in many fields (although sadly not mine, as yet), the 
Free Software implementation is the most popular piece of software.

I would urge the Group to take the final step in this process, and 
remove the potential for "field of use" restrictions from the policy. As 
others have doubtless pointed out, the incompatibility of these 
restrictions with Free Software is succinctly summarised by the Free 
Software Foundation at the following URL:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/w3c-patent.html

Many thanks,

Gerv

Received on Friday, 3 January 2003 05:02:28 UTC