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From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>
> > 1. The web would not have emerged without non-royalty
> > based standards
...
> The problem is that is speculation. We don't know how that
> would have worked. We have the counterexamples of PDF and
> MPEG, to name two, to show that such encumbered systems can
> succeed. Patented technology shows up regularly in hardware
> and software.
On the other hand, we did have Compuserv and other
proprietary access layers, and they did not become the WWW.
So it is not speculation to pit proprietary against free for the WWW,
more a matter of judging to what extent the WWW succeeded
because it had a free and open basis.
Again, you say PDF has succeeded, but for all the software developers
who Adobe didn't grant rights to use their PDF SDK, before there
were free alternatives, PDF is not a success.
> Again, "us vs them". This is one more example of why that
> article IS polarizing.
The polarization is created by those grabbing rights, not the victims!
Cheers
Rick Jelliffe
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