The Register on W3C Patent Policy

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Patents list.  Article text pasted below. 
-- Seth)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 14:51:27 +0100 (CET)
From: PILCH Hartmut <phm at a2e.de>
To: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org>
CC:
C-FIT_Community at RealMeasures.dyndns.org,<C-FIT_Release_Community at RealMeasures.dyndns.org>,<fairuse-discuss at nyfairuse.org>,
<patents at aful.org>

> > http://news.com.com/2100-1001-965863.html
> W3C Bows to Royalty-free Pressure

Another article with a much less pro-patent title:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28135.html

W3C rejects net patent tax, avoids web schism

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco

Posted: 16/11/2002 at 01:31 GMT

The web standards consortium W3C has agreed on a policy that
should
prevent nasty royalty surprises for developers in the
future.

...


-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel.
+49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation	    
http://swpat.ffii.org/
125,000 signatures against software patents     
http://www.noepatents.org/

----


> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28135.html


W3C rejects net patent tax, avoids web schism

By Andrew Orlowski
16/11/2002


The web standards consortium W3C has agreed on a policy that
should prevent nasty royalty surprises for developers in the
future. 

The latest draft from the W3C's patent policy group
stipulates that participants must agree to license patents
on a royalty-free basis. W3C-blessed web standards have
always been royalty-free, but last year the W3C countenanced
a twin-track approach, adding RAND licensing as an option. 

It met with a fierce response from software libre
developers, with talk of creating a breakaway organization
that could set royalty-free standards. Developers are
reluctant to start work on a technology with the threat of
possible lawsuits and fees hanging over them, and for GPL
developers it's a no-no: the license forbids developers from
working with encumbered technology. 

The new draft, which had input from the FSF's Eben Moglen
and Bruce Perens, should avert a schism by eliminating the
RAND track altogether. So there's no way that a technology
could begin life as a royalty-free license then switch to a
fee-bearing license during the ratification process. 

The W3C allows patent holders to "retain defensive use of
their patents". The W3C expects this to be ratified by next
May. ®

--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3