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IP: more on -- RAND and W3C (for IP if you like)
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 01:55:03 -0400
From: "Daniel J. Weitzner" <djweitzner () w3 org> To: <farber () cis upenn edu> Subject: Re: RAND and W3C (for IP if you like) Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 09:12:37 -0400 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2479.0006 Dave, W3C is in the midst of a very serious debate about the role of patents with respect to Web standards. This article, however, doesn't really hit the heart of the matter. The draft policy we've proposed replaces the current confusion over patents with two options for new standards: either Royalty-Free (with real teeth as opposed to today's hope that no one will sue) or RAND (reasonable, non-discriminatory terms). The proposal that some W3C standards might be RAND as opposed to Royalty-Free has, as the article below notes, produced huge outcry from the Open Source community. In the heat of the debate, I believe that many royalty-free proponents have lost sight of the fact that the proposed policy creates much more legal certainty around RF, but that's for readers to judge. As you know, RAND is quite common in technical standards bodies (ISO, ANSI, even IETF) but raises big questions in the Web context due to the Web's strong roots in the open source environment. I invite IPers to read the statement we've put out. http://www.w3.org/2001/10/patent-response (links to the draft policy itself are in this document) and consider commenting on the policy we're proposing. There's also a lively discussion going on at Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/08/1459240&mode=thread http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/30/1454216&mode=nested At the request of a number of commenters from the Open Source community, we've extended the comment deadline to 11 October 2001 and will circulate another draft of our policy for comment before it is finalized. Thanks, Danny Weitzner Chair, W3C Patent Policy Working Group
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- IP: more on -- RAND and W3C (for IP if you like) David Farber (Oct 09)