Comments: W3C Royalty-Free Patent Policy Last Call Working Draft

Hello W3C,

I appreciate all your work.  I hope that someday you will be able to say the
same to me, in regards to Open Source development efforts centering around
web standards.

I believe that Open Source development is critical to the advancement of web
standards; you may not agree.  However, you seem to agree that a
Royalty-Free Patent Policy is a good thing.

A case can be made to support the fact that a Royalty-Free Patent Policy
supports Open Source development more than it does Proprietary development.
If provided a back-door to demand so-called RAND licensing fees, Proprietary
software companies will use it to push Open Source developers out of web
standards development in sectors they consider profitable.

Which brings me to my comment: Why make all the effort of trying to be fair
if you leave in a clause that essentially makes it impossible for the main
benefactors of the effort to utilize it?

I feel that web standards owe as much to Open Source development as Open
Source development owes to web standards.  Please, reconsider your position
and ensure that Open Source licenses such as the GNU GPL and GNU LGPL are
compatible with the Royalty-Free Patent Policy.

Thank you for your time,


Cory Trese
Lead Web Application Developer

O'NEIL & ASSOCIATES, INC.
495 Byers Rd.
Miamisburg, Ohio 45342-3662
Phone: (937) 865-0800 ext. 3038
Fax: (937) 865-5858
E-mail: ctrese@oneil.com

Received on Tuesday, 7 January 2003 08:39:51 UTC