HP and Apple realise the error of their ways

In an interesting about-face, two companies who are among the original authors of the Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (RAND, see this) proposal, a royalties based license

In an interesting about-face, two companies who are among the original authors of the Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (RAND, see this) proposal, a royalties based license meant for World Wide Web Consortium standards, have dropped their support for RAND licensing.

According to Jim Bell, Director of Standards and Industry Initiatives at Hewlett-Packard; "Hewlett-Packard Company opposes the adoption of the proposed W3C Patent Policy Framework in its current form and recommends that it be replaced by a policy with the goal of producing W3C standards that are all royalty free." Perhaps Apple and HP realised that not only would they be collecting royalties if RAND licensing was adopted, but they would also be paying royalties to other companies at the same time.

It will be interesting to note if Apple and HPs new stand against RAND can stop the proposal in its tracks, or if it will RAND will disappear for a few months and then pop up again under a different name.