Where's MS in all this?

[tom poe]

Hi:  Something tells me we still have MS standing in the wings on this one.  
In the meantime, my efforts to get the W3.org folks to cough up a readable 
list of what standards are royalty-free and what standards are 
patent-encumbered is being met with obfuscation and gobbledy-gook.  And, 
richard stallman is playing dumb, as well.  Tell me I'm wrong, but we could 
easily be headed for some real rough water, if we let the W3.org continue 
with this RAND nonsense, and let corporations take control of the standards.  
Of course, the folks at W3.org will each have their little "pensions" to take 
with them from the corporate sponsors, leaving the world with crap for 
standards.

When the future comes, and these corporate jerks hold the key to the gate, 
the cost of accessing the Internet actively is raised.  Just like what's 
happened to web radio.

Thanks, 
Tom 
http://www.studioforrecording.org/
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/
http://renotahoe.pm.org/

BM claim to ebXML patent sparks furor

IBM claims it owns patent rights on the trading partner agreements
associated with the ebXML trading standard, muddying the concept of
openness among users and those who helped develop the specifications.

http://computerworld.com/nlt/1%2C3590%2CNAV47_STO70384_NLTPM%2C00.html