Re: HP and their plans for Batik

[Vincent Hardy <vi...@sun.com>]

Tom,

tom poe wrote:
> And you ask, what has this to do with DMCA, SSSCA, Batik?  Well, there seems
> to be some small glitches in just who owns the rights to Scalable Vector
> Graphics, and just how Internet access will be controlled down the road.
> Remember our friend the GIF?  Tomorrow, there is scheduled decision-making
> going on at W3C.org on patent use in Internet Standards.  I encourage
> everyone that wants to get paid by companies for their work on up and coming
> Batik "proprietary standards", contact W3C.org and inquire.  Tongue-in-cheek
> Tom

I have a couple comments/questions about your email:

a. Batik is not a standard and it is not proprietary. Batik is an
   open-source project which implements SVG. SVG is a W3C 
   recommendation that Batik implements in an open-source environment.
   This means that the use of the Batik software is under the 
   Apache license terms. There might be issues with the patent situation
   in SVG but that certainly does not come from Batik, I wanted to 
   make that clear. 

   You raise issues with the patent situation in
   the W3C with regards to SVG, and this debate is relevant 
   for Batik, but I think it is important to make the 
   distinction between Batik and SVG: they are two different things.
   When raising important issues, I think it is key to be 
   careful before putting negative tags on projects (for example,
   talking about Batik "proprietary standards" is both inaccurate and
   negative). 

   You may not find the patent situation perfect, but keep in mind that 
   SVG is way better than having to deal with purely proprietary
formats. 
   This does not mean issues are not important (and the W3C has been
   working on addressing them), it just puts problems in perspective.

b. I could not find a reference to Batik at:
   http://www.openphd.net/W3C_Patent_Policy
   which your email P.S refers to. There are plenty of references to 
   SVG though.

   Did you mean SVG? I think it is important to make a distinction
   between a format (SVG) and its implementations (Batik is one).

Vincent Hardy,

> 
> Go to:
> http://www.openphd.net/W3C_Patent_Policy  and scroll down to Batik for the
> "correct" information.
> 
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