Subject: Re: [secdir] [New-work] Proposed W3C Charter: Fonts Working Group (until 2009-01-14)

From: "L. David Baron" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:21:01 -0800

On Monday 2008-12-08 19:45 +0000, Ian B. Jacobs wrote:
> Today W3C Advisory Committee Representatives received a Proposal
> for a new Fonts Activity [0] (see the W3C Process
> Document description of Activity Proposals [1]). This proposal
> includes a draft charter for the Fonts Working Group:
>   http://www.w3.org/Fonts/Misc/charter-2008-v2

The comments Mozilla sent as part of this Advisory Committee review
are below.

-David

4. Support for the Proposal
===========================

My organization:

  ( ) supports this Activity Proposal as is.
  ( ) suggests changes to this Activity Proposal, but support the
      proposal whether or not the changes are adopted (your details
      below).
  (X) suggests changes to this Activity Proposal, and only support
      the proposal if the changes are adopted (your details below).
  ( ) opposes this Activity Proposal and requests that this group be
      closed (your details below).
  ( ) abstains from this review.

Comments (or a URI pointing to your comments):

Our most significant objection to the current charter is that, as
described in
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-ac-forum/2008OctDec/0371.html ,
the scope section restricts the deliverables of the group to those in
which the font resource is specific to a particular or set of documents.
This is in spite of compromises being under discussion that did not have
this restriction; for an example see
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2008Nov/0415.html .

An alternative wording for the charter that would address our concerns
is contained in
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-ac-forum/2008OctDec/0410.html .

Additionally, we are somewhat concerned given the churn on this charter
about whether W3C really is a neutral forum here.  There seems to be a
pretty strong pull from W3C towards root string-based solutions, and I
think the companies of both proposed WG chairs are advocating such
solutions.  Having a co-chair from the other side of this debate might
help make the group a more neutral forum.

5. Participation
================

If this proposal is approved, my organization would be interested in
participating in the following groups. Note: This answer is
non-binding; after the review a formal Call for Participation will
be sent for each approved charter.

  [X] Fonts Working Group

6. Support for Deliverables of the group
========================================

My organization:

  [X] intends to review drafts as they are published and send
      comments.
  [X] intends to develop experimental implementations and send
      experience reports (your details below).
  [X] intends to develop products based on this work (your details
      below).
  [ ] intends to apply this technology in our operations.
  [ ] would be interested in participating in any press activity
      connected with this group.

Comments (or a URI pointing to your comments):

7. Expected Implementation Schedules
====================================

If you expect to implement some deliverables of this Activity,
please indicate any known schedule for such implementations, without
commitment.

Comments (or a URI pointing to your comments):

In Firefox 3.1, expected in the first half of this year, we expect to
ship support for downloadable TrueType/OpenType fonts, with a default
same-origin restriction that can be relaxed by the server providing the
font using access-control.

8. Detailed Comments, Reasons, or Modifications
===============================================

In addition to any comments you may have, please provide details
about your answers. This may include, but is not restricted to,
technical issues or issues associated with patent claims associated
with the specification.

Comments (or a URI pointing to your comments):

Our review of the previous proposed charter contains a more general
statement of our position on downloadable fonts; see
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-new-work/2008Nov/0001.html

-- 
L. David Baron                                 http://dbaron.org/
Mozilla Corporation                       http://www.mozilla.com/

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