[Fsfe-uk] W3C Rejects Patents on Net Tech

[Paul Mobbs]

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W3C Rejects Patents on Net Tech 

Wired, 04:00 PM Nov. 15, 2002 PT


The Internet will remain royalty free. 

Or at least the part of it standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium, 
known as W3C, will. That's according to a document released on Thursday by 
the W3C's Patent Policy Working Group. 

Daniel Weitzner, the patent group's chairman, said that after spending nearly 
a year trying to work out ways to allow companies to retain patents on W3C 
standards, the idea was finally rejected in a 12-7 a vote. 

Weitzner said that while the W3C will allow another six weeks for public 
comment on the document before the W3C's executive director Tim Berners-Lee 
makes a final decision, "from the working group's perspective we're 
finished." 

A royalty-free patent policy would distinguish the W3C from other standards 
groups that allow for what is known as "reasonable and nondiscriminatory," or 
RAND, licensing of patented technology in their standards. 

Critics of RAND licensing say it will allow large companies to essentially 
place a toll on Internet software. 

<SNIP>


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Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations,
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