FSF position on Section 3

OpenSkills is a software services company founded on the principles of 
doing the best thing by our client, and of using open source soulutions 
where possible.  We closely follow developments in open source 
licensing, as these underpin our ability to do the best thing by our 
clients.

We view software patents as a significant potential source of future 
harm for our clients, and ourselves. For this reason, we are 
particularly sensitive to the relationship between open source licensing 
and software patents.

We write to you now in support of the FSF (Free Software Foundation) 
position on  Section 3 of the W3C's proposed patent policy 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-patent-policy-20021114/#sec-Requirements>. 
  The FSF position is expressed here:
    -    http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/w3c-patent.html

We would suggest the removal of item 3 from section 3 of the proposed 
W3C patent policy, or the explicit addition of wording which permits 
redistribution under the terms of the GPL (in particular Section 7 of 
GPL <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#TOC3>).

Lastly, we would like to take this oportunity to thank the W3C for their 
great work.  The W3C, and the standards they make available, are a boon 
to stability and open competition within the software industry.

Yours,
    Bruce Badger

Received on Tuesday, 7 January 2003 01:32:43 UTC