Re: (Second) Last Call for XPointer 1.0

[Daniel Veillard <Daniel.Veillard@imag.fr>]

On Thu, Jan 11, 2001 at 11:43:54AM -0600, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> The W3C differs because of its role as a specification 
> owner and technology incubator.  In simple terms, "from 
> those who have more, more is expected."   They are the 
> authority.  They have the knowledge.  Unlike the patent 
> office which uses incompetence as the excuse, I don't 
> think the W3C gets off the hook that easily.

  Well, competence in term of patents is simply a different
world. Someone may be the best technical expert in a domain
without being able to have full knowledge of all the patents
present in the field. I think Sun's patent was discovered
accidentally. And some companies patent pools are so large that
takes them many months to give an exhaustive answer on the
patent they may held in a given area.

> They are 
> not an industry: they are an industry representative. 
> They can ask a very large community any time they 
> need to answer a question.

  Seeems clear that if XPointer proceeds to PR, the
question on the Patent will be one of the main points
the W3C AC Representative will have to give advise on.
Two of them have already expressed their opinion publicly
it seems ...
  
> If it only clobbers HTML, then it becomes a force 
> to move us toward XML+stylesheets and away from a 
> single downtranslation target.  Would you consider a 
> strategy that says, HTML is targeted for extinction 
> by environmental pressure from the patent office and Sun?

  Well my opinion is useless. Anyway HTML is now transitionning
to XML.

> I doubt it but that is a potential outcome if we 
> 
> a) need XPointer
> b) are uncomfortable with the agreeement
> 
> B may be up for grabs, but we won't abandon fragment 
> based addressing.   We could kiss off XPointer and 
> use another spec,

  without string based addressing ?

> or just agree to ignore the patent 
> and perhaps boycott Sun products until they relent. 

  Hum, I never purchased anything from Sun, they probably
don't care ...
  
> http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

 Is redirected to

  http://search.mp3.com/bin/search?query=expressurl&%3flang=eng

 heh ...

Daniel

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