A while back, the W3C was considering allowing standards to include patented technology such that people would need to license the standard from the owner; the W3C was considering using a Reasonable And Non-Disciminatory policy for such licensing. More details can be found at Perl, W3C, and RAND. As RAND did not necessarily include free use for free (as in beer) software, a lot of open source developers, including some here at PM, complained. Apparently, a lot of those claims paid off as the W3C today is backing off from RAND and proposing that they continue to only approve standards that are royality free, according to CNet. There's still an additional comment period down the road, but it's doubtful they'll reverse their decision again. But it is important to note that at some point they expect to have to deal with patented standards that they cannot ignore the licensing fees from, such as the concerns over the MPEG4 standard.
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Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com
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