royalty-free for web-only use is a dangerous and unwise limitation

The goal of the proposed W3C patent policy, as I understand it, is to
enable the open production of web implementations to continue to serve
the public as well as they have in the past. My only comment on the
proposed policy is this: Item 3 of Section 3 prevents the policy from
achieving that goal.

In order for the royalty-free aspect of the patent policy to do any
good, the freedom from royalties cannot be limited to any specific field
of endeavor. This defeats the whole purpose of using royalty-free
licensing: to enable the broadest possible use of the implementations of
these patents, thereby continuing the web's tradition of healthy
community involvement contributing to a vibrant and widely-useful pool
of technology free from the controlling influence of vested interests.

It is therefore my opinion that that item should be stricken from the
W3C's policy.

-- 
Jason Lunz			Reflex Security
lunz@reflexsecurity.com		http://www.reflexsecurity.com/

Received on Tuesday, 7 January 2003 11:39:31 UTC