Am 30. Sep, 2001 schwätzte Brian Cluff so: > There is an article over at slashdot about the w3c considering the use of > patented technologies in future protocols. > > http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/30/1454216&mode=thread > > Looks like this is the last day to get in any comments on the proposed > plan, so if you value being able to use konqueror, mozilla or any other > browser that can't afford to pay a license fee to be able to browse future > web pages. > > Please see the article on the link above for details and places to send > comments. After hitting LinuxToday and slashdot the proprosal got over 700 messages today. They got less than 100 in the two weeks prior to that. Goes to show that we can respond when necessary. It might also show that we don't have a life if we can drum up that much on a Sunday :). I was even lamer because I was working and didn't get time to do anything during the day even though I knew about it :(. It's not over. Maybe the dramatic response will actually get them to reconsider trying to slide it through without giving opportunity for true public feedback. If so, we need to have real critiques and examples to offer up. Check posts from: Alan Cox http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0131.html Jeremy Allison http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0033.html Kevin O'Conner http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0591.html EBo http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0700.html George Toft http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0540.html Though he wrote a good response, George unfortunately missed a grand opportunity to mention both Anthem and Rand in the same message ;-). Granted, Ayn Rand seemed to be into keeping things from the public and only making them available to those who were good enough to understand their value. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0746.html Adam Warner posted that message he received from Janet Daly of the W3C in response to the deluge of responses today. She points out that they need concrete critiques. Unfortunately time was a little short to read and comprehend the whole thing. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Sep/0750.html Branden Robinson got in a point about the amount of response in such a short time. After the buzzer, according to the W3C archive, we have posts from: Bruce Perens http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Oct/0027.html rms ( written from Flagstaff :) http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Oct/0018.html and a good email from Karsten M. Self about the response and extending the time for public comment. He mentions reasons why it seems the W3C didn't advertise this proposal very well. We need to remind our community, though, that we have to be vigilent and find these types of things on our own as well. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Oct/0025.html ciao, der.hans -- # der.hans@LuftHans.com home.pages.de/~lufthans/ www.DevelopOnline.com # C'est la Net - der.hans