[gentoo-dev] W3C patent policy change

[Karl Trygve Kalleberg]

Hi gang.

I normally wouldn't abuse my membership in this fine forum by preaching non-technical politics, but I really think this issue can have a dramatic impact on Gentoo as a distribution as an organization.

Please at least skim through http://www.w3.org/TR/patent-policy/ and make up your mind. 

You might also want to take a peek at Alan Cox' comments:
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-09-30-010-20-OP-CY

Or a more in-depth article by Adam Warner:
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-09-30-001-20-NW-CY


What I personally find dubious is that it standards backers should, not must, disclose relevant patent before the standards is ratified. With the known abuse in the world of patents, this could mean that *any* new W3C standard might require royalty payment, which is not known before long after the standard is in common use.


What I hope you do is make up your mind, and if you disagree about anything in the proposal, send a mail to www-patentpolicy-comment@××.org and express your opinions. Remember that the mail need not be long and formal, but should be a bit more than "U 5UCK". The deadline for public hearing is 30th September, which means tonight.

Kind regards,

Karl T