The real force behind the Web, many software developers argue, is that it's free. What makes the Web truly worldwide, after all, is its interoperability-you can call up virtually any Web page on virtually any device connected to the Internet-and that depends on free software. But now members of the World Wide Web Consortium, the MIT-based industry forum devoted to promoting interoperability, are locked in a debate with outside critics over whether the royalty-free tradition can continue in a world where many companies hold patents on-and would like to start profiting from-the software needed as the backbone for next-generation Web standards.

Last August, the consortium's Patent Policy Working Group proposed a set of procedure changes that would, for the first time in the consortium's history, create an official structure for companies to collect licensing fees on technologies incorporated into Web standards. Such fees would typically be paid by companies that sell commercial software or services based on the standards, but they could be passed along to the average Web user in the form of higher prices or usage charges. The working group said the policy was needed to encourage companies to disclose relevant patents early in the standards-making process. But so many outraged e-mails poured in from software developers concerned about the policy's implications for the openness of the Web that the working group had to extend the period for public comment.