RE: RE: New work on fonts at W3C

Dave,

 

For the purpose of this discussion let’s forget the DRM – nobody ever asked for one. 

And when everything said and done, it doesn’t really matter whether the technology is open or proprietary – what does matter though is The Consumer. Do you really believe all consumers in the world would rather be severely limited in their selection of content that is *only* available for free? Do you truly believe that nobody would ever want to pay for a service or a product they like and need?

 

The greatest value of open standards is to create an environment where as many participants can happily enjoy the freedom of choice – and this includes the freedom to choose anything they need and want. Freedom is not a synonym to “free of charge”, and, when it comes to fonts, open standard that restricts its users to a severely limited set of font choices that are only available for free limits the freedom of both consumers and font vendors. By making the open standard so restrictive you pave the way for proprietary technology like Flash. I have nothing against Flash but I’d rather see the open standard being truly open.

 

Regards,

Vladimir

 

 

From: d.crossland@gmail.com [mailto:d.crossland@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Dave Crossland
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 12:10 PM
To: Levantovsky, Vladimir
Cc: Chris Wilson; John Daggett; www-style@w3.org; Tab Atkins Jr.
Subject: Re: RE: New work on fonts at W3C

 

Vlad,

Your assertion that users live happily with iTunes staggers belief. DVD Jon's new company wouldn't get VC funding if that was the case, and then there's the Apple vs France legal procedings.

DRM isn't acceptable to a lot of people, and while Apple or Microsoft might try it on in their little private fiefdoms, there is no place for DRM in standards based development communities.

Regards, Dave

 On 22 Jun 2009, 4:45 PM, "Levantovsky, Vladimir" <Vladimir.Levantovsky@monotypeimaging.com> wrote:

 On Saturday, June 20, 2009 11:35 PM Tab Atkins Jr. wrote: > > On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 6:55 PM, Chri...

 I would say that when it comes to music - exactly the opposite is true. Kudos to Apple and iTunes for creating a "technological playground" where billions of users and all major recording labels and artists can happily co-exist. Implementing a reasonable level of technological protection gave birth a whole new ecosystem with the abundance of content where users can easily find anything and everything they want and don't mind paying for it. Technology (yes, I intentionally avoid saying that d-word but we all know what it is) created a backbone for new business model to be put in place that both consumers and content providers can live with. The whole iTunes/iPod/iPhone universe would have been impossible to create if music industry didn't agree to participate.
 
 
 Vladimir
 
 > ~TJ