"we are working on several technical solutions that could be integrated into
the browser that would prevent copyrighted information from being copied and
reused illegally"... TimBL
Cheers,
Rohit
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July 19, 1996 5:30 PM ET * PCWEEK
W3C dips into E-commerce, copyright protection
By _Michael Moeller_
Best known for its work to define HTML standards, the World Wide Web
Consortium this fall will expand its influence into areas such as electronic
commerce and copyright protection.
In addition, the W3C will formally endorse several new specifications,
including rating standards called PICS (Platform for Internet Content
Selection), a new object insertion standard for HTML, advanced HTML layout
capabilities and a new graphics standard called Portable Network Graphics.
"We are trying to bring together the effort of the commercial world and focus
on issues that the majority of our members have in common," said Tim
Berners-Lee, executive director of the W3C in Cambridge, Mass., and one of the
original creators of the Web and its two primary protocols: HTTP (Hypertext
Transport Protocol) and HTML.
According to Berners-Lee, in an effort to enable its members to develop more
advanced capabilities, the W3C next month will release new client
software--called Amaya--that is dynamically extensible, based on
object-oriented code and supports all HTML 3.2 capabilities. Currently running
on a few versions of Unix, Amaya also will be ported to the Windows and
Windows NT platforms, Berners-Lee added.
One new area of interest for the W3C will be the creation of technical
solutions to prevent copyright infringement over the Internet.
"That is a huge issue for users, so we are working on several technical
solutions that could be integrated into the browser that would prevent
copyrighted information from being copied and reused illegally," said
Berners-Lee.
Going forward, the W3C will focus on an electronic commerce effort called
JEPI (joint electronic payment initiative) and on defining and helping the
Internet Engineering Task Force enhance the next generation of HTTP.