On Wed, Jan 01, 2003 at 12:33:07AM -0500, Seth Johnson wrote:
To the W3C Patent Policy Working Group:
I have received the following comments from various other online sources, all indicating that they have been sent to the www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org list.
For the record, I also sent a comment which was bounced. I received the following error message. However, visiting the provided URL gives me an error.
id not found
Error: There is no message with id: 9b1467c302ebfd641803eedbb11c51c58c7d0db0. Please make sure you have cut and pasted the URI correctly.
I am not asking for user support. But you activist types may find this information useful to try extend the comment submission period. If a technical failure occured at the end of the comment submission period, it is reasonable to ask for an extension.
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Subject: IMPORTANT: your message to www-patentpolicy-comment To: david@allouche.net From: W3C List Manager aa-sender@w3.org
This is a response to a message apparently sent from your address to www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org:
Subject: Do not accept "field of use" restriction From: David Allouche david@allouche.net Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 18:54:27 +0100
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----- Forwarded message from David Allouche david@allouche.net -----
To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org Subject: Do not accept "field of use" restriction From: David Allouche david@allouche.net
Since its beginnings, the W3C has accomplished the respectable mission of making the internet a place of freedom and equality were all contributors, be they individuals, small or big businesses or governements had similar abilities to publish and access information and develop new tools leveraging the common infrastructure.
This longstanding policy has been one of the key factors in the wonderful success of the Web as a media for speech and business. Today, W3C has become for many technical and management people a seal of quality ensuring interoperability and freedom. That is what makes the W3C a successful organization. You know that when one bases its projects on W3C recommandation, one produces useful tools which can be used in all reasonable ways without fear of litigation.
The so called "field of use restriction" that the W3C plan to accept for technologies used in its official recommandation will considerably change the game. The problem is that the Web is not a closed system. It is more and more interleaved with all fields of endeavour where computing is involved. One of latest buzz-words in the telecom field is "digital convergence". This convergence applies very much to Web technologies too.
That means that any "field of use restriction" applicable to a W3C recommandation makes its use a legal mine-field. As the limit between computing and appliance, communication and networking, Web and publishing blurs, the interpretation of the "field of use" will be more and more arbitrary, making it a dreaded weapons for patent holders.
The current trend in patenting in the software and business methods field is appearing more and more as a way for businesses to prevent smaller businesses from entering their market. Whether that is a acceptable retribution for research and wether that stifles or promote innovation is a debate I wish not to discuss.
However I do not believe that it is compatible with the W3C mission to taint its recommandations by making them potentially harmful to small businesses and individuals. The high respect you have earned in the computing field, you may lose it when a few patent holders have used the "field of use restriction" against competitors. The W3C is about interoperability and legal safety for users of its recommandations. I hope that you will be attentive to the lower traffic produced by this new proposal compared to the "RAND" proposal last year.
Not every business or developer is aware of the problems involved in "field of use restriction", but when they realize it the impact to the W3C will be similar. People and organization will lose trust in your recommandations. Then either web technologies will diverge, which will be a disaster, or another organization will take the place you will have leaved and will earn the trust you will have losed. Either way that will be a failure for the W3C. Please do not do that.
Best wish and deeps regards.