Prohibit the imposition of "field of use" restrictions on patent claims contributed to W3C standards

To whom it may concern,

I have been a web developer and Web content creator since the early 1990s.
I am currently partner and president for a web-development company. We use
Free Software whenever possible in our business because its nature as Free
Software provides certain guarantees. With access to the source code and
freedom to redistribute it with changes, we know we can build powerful and
useful software and legally and ethically re-use and build upon the work of
others.

The foundation of the Web is built on open standards and was established
with Free Software. Field of use restrictions are a complete disrespect to
Free Software. While some W3C members may feel software licenses like the
GPL hinder their ability to innovate, Free Software licenses have already
shown themselves to be quite an inciting factor in the development of new
software, technology, and standards for the Web arena.

I protest the inclusion of any "field of use" restrictions as such as is
proposed in section 3 of the draft W3C patent policy document and encourage
you to make the necessary revisions to this document so that Free Software
can continue to be a part of this vital arena of our world.

Sincerely,
Doran L. Barton

-- 
Doran L. Barton <fozz@iodynamics.com> - President/CSH - Iodynamics LLC
http://www.iodynamics.com/ - Network consulting, development, and Linux
 "Enraged cow injures farmer with axe"
    -- Headline seen in newspaper

Received on Tuesday, 7 January 2003 03:19:18 UTC