[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: New W3C Patent Practice

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: New W3C Patent Practice
• From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
• Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 13:56:11 -0500
• In-reply-to: <3C519F91.1BCB123A@k...>

1/25/2002 1:10:25 PM, Kian-Tat Lim <ktl@k...> wrote:


>
>Think of it as DOM Level 0.  This is the baseline, that xml-dev 
likes,
>that will be changed to something xml-dev doesn't like.

xml-dev may not like the eventual patent policy, but it will be very 
different from the draft that caused the uproar last September.

"Weitzner described three points made repeatedly in the responses 
that struck home with the Working Group:

The development of the World Wide Web over the last 10 years would 
not have been possible, or at least would not have resembled the 
course it did take, if implementers of HTTP, HTML, URIs, and the XML 
specifications had to pay royalties to patent holders.

The open source development model that has powered so much Web and 
XML development is simply incompatible with specifications that 
require royalty payments to implement. The open source community made 
very clear that the RAND policy would cause the Web to "fork," that 
is, split along royalty free/royalty required lines, to the great 
detriment of interoperability.

The RAND policy would "tilt the playing field" in favor of the large 
companies with deep pockets and extensive portfolios of patents to 
cross license, thus stifling the innovation by small companies and 
even individuals that has so famously driven the evolution of the 
Web...

As it turned out, Weitzner passed on news that was quite well 
received: The Patent Policy WG had been directed by the W3C Advisory 
Committee to rework the draft policy to have a strong preference for 
technology that is not encumbered by patents, or whose owners agree 
to make them freely available on a royalty-free basis." 

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/12/19/patents.html

• References:
  • Re: New W3C Patent Practice
    • From: Kian-Tat Lim <ktl@k...>

• Prev by Date: RE: Push and Pull?
• Next by Date: Re: Non-validating parser, non-existing DTD, undefinedentity and error reporting
• Previous by thread: Re: New W3C Patent Practice
• Next by thread: RE: New W3C Patent Practice
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread