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The World Wide Web consortium has made a u-turn from a proposal last year that would have allowed companies to demand royalties for Web software standards.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a non-profit organisation that works with developers and software makers to come up with standards for the Internet that are generally available for use publicly or through agreements with patent holders not to enforce their patents.
It is an international industry consortium jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France and Keio University in Japan.
Last autumn, W3C was considering a move that would have allowed companies to charge royalty fees for technologies used as Web standards recommend by the organisation. When it came to light that W3C was considering the move, critics attacked the body saying it would either marginalize itself, or it would destroy open source standards on the Net.
But the justification for W3C's contemplation of the move was clear. In a section of its proposed recommendations commonly called RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory terms), W3C said that companies who spend millions on developing new and useful technologies for the Internet are not likely to want to simply give the technology away. Not allowing royalties to be collected could have serious impact on the development of Internet standards, it was argued.
Nevertheless with criticism and mounting pressure from open source Internet developers and industry associations W3C said on Tuesday that it will not back the collection of royalties for those who develop Internet standards. "To achieve the goal of producing Royalty-Free specifications, the draft requires all who participate in the development of W3C Recommendations to make any essential patents they hold available for free," W3C said in a statement.
"The option which would have permitted W3C Members the option to charge for the use of patented technologies in W3C Recommendations has been removed, pending final resolution of the question of what role RAND technologies should play in Web standards."
The organisation still admits that there will be circumstances when it wants to back software that is only available for a fee. It is thought that these circumstances will be dealt with on a case by case basis.
The W3C's Patent Policy Working Group is now seeking public comment on this new Working Draft. And can be found on-line at http://www.w3c.org
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