The W3C Patent Policy

The World Wide Web Consortium has come under a lot of fire recently for burying a proposal that would allow its recommendations to be released under a fee-paying licence.

Well, they must be listening because they’ve now pushed back the closing date for comments on this proposal.

Web developers, if you don’t want to end up paying to use future versions of CSS, XML and other (currently licence-free) standards, then make your voice heard.

This is all part of a slippery slope that started with ridiculous patents on software, business practices and even Internet protocols.