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W3C Approved Patent Policy: Royalty Free Standards

Posted by michael on from the better-decisions-through-harassment dept.

Danny Weitzner writes "The World Wide Web Consortium has approved the W3C Patent Policy based on review by the W3C Advisory Committee and thanks to lots of input and cajoling from the Open Source community and slashdoters. Read the public Director's decision. We're the first major standards organization that sets the explicit goal of producing only standards that can be implemented without paying patent royalties. Our policy requires legal commitments from all who contribute to the development of Web standards that patents held by the contributor will be available on royalty-free terms. Both proprietary and open source software have been critical to the growth of the Web. With this policy, we intend to enabled continued innovation by both open source and proprietary development."

10 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Unfortunately... by Waab · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately, Bezos already has a patent on the use of a royalty-free patent policy. Though I'm sure he'd be willing to license it to W3C for a reasonable fee.

  2. Does this mean the Web is GPLed? by Laglorden · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn that viral licensing ;)

  3. Good deal... by asparagus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Somewhere, hopefully, a bunch of patent lawyers are groaning.

    Your own damn fault, guys. You got greedy.

    There's only so many people you can harass at the party before you won't get invited to the next ball. Have fun suing each other out of existance.

  4. Why did it take so long? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Might as well have said: "After much deliberation and comittee meetings, we have come to the decision that 15+1 equals 16. And therefore in all of our publications page 15 will be followed by page 16. We should all thank and congratulate those who contributed time, expertise, patience and a spirit of cooperation to this effort."

    1. Re:Why did it take so long? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Dear A. Coward:

      Please be advised of our patent US#63245431 on "method and process for deciding the page that comes after 16".

      Althought you are currently not infringing on our valuable intellectual property, and we are not required by law to do so, we thought you might appreciate an unsolicited "heads-up".

      Note that we also hold a patent on "method and process for deciding the page that comes before 18", so no trying to come in from the other way.

      Sincerely,

      LawyerDrone

  5. billy by grub · · Score: 5, Funny

    From: Bill Gates
    To:
    MS-Developers(all)

    Find out what these "standards" are that everyone speaks of
    and find a way to buy them out.
    Regards,

    Bill
    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:billy by .com+b4+.storm · · Score: 2, Funny

      Find out what these "standards" are that everyone speaks of and find a way to buy them out.

      Obligatory Simpsons reference...

      Bill Gates: Buy 'em out, boys!
      Homer: Hey, what the hell is going on?
      Bill Gates: Oh, Mr. Simpson, I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks! Ahahaha!

      --
      "Wow, you're like some kind of superhero able to ward off happiness and success at every turn."
      -- Ryan Stiles
  6. Hah! by the+bluebrain · · Score: 2, Funny

    This article makes me thing of a slightly strange formulation often seen in plays:

    Exuent Microsoft

    But then, it's probably too much to hope for. I can already see the blue-eyed look on the Softies' faces: "But ... but ... it *does* confirm to the standards. Well, almost. Well, okay, there are some things in there that will make an implementation than confirms with *only* W3C standards to crash, but that's hardly our fault. And look! We put some really neat new stuff in there to make up for it. We're on your side. Really. Trust us."

    --
    yes, we have no bananas
  7. Yeah, when will they learn? by brlewis · · Score: 3, Funny

    Couldn't the w3c recognize how much this would hurt them? I mean, look how irrelevant the Internet is now. If the IETF hadn't limited themselves to open standards like TCP/IP, etc., think how popular the Internet might be today! Everybody would be using it!

  8. Re:One more month... by Almost-Retired · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn, I wish you hadn't mentioned that.

    Mr. Murphy you see, is alive and well, and now Senator Dizzy will bring up an emergency bill to get that patent extended for another 75 years.

    Sometimes its better to just STFU.