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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
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