Retire the proposal due to breach of W3C antitrust guidelines

[jwrosewell]

This Attribution proposal breaches of W3C antitrust guidelines.

When W3C CEO ruled on the chartering of the group he deferred any antitrust matters to specific work.

The following text from the antitrust guidelines is relevant.

Do not discuss (even in jest) or exchange non-public information regarding, or agree upon (whether verbally, in writing, informally, or by implication), any of the following with any actual or known potential competitor while engaged in any W3C Activity; decreasing or eliminating competition, including without limitation, encouraging or forcing others to modify a business relationship with third parties.

As the purpose of this specific proposal is to place business decision logic into the web browser and thus insert the web browser into the business relationships of others this issue can not be addressed via text changes to the current document. Proposals that centralize control of the web are undesirable. The proposal needs to be retired, any published documents amended to indicate they are archived due to the breach, and a clear communication made to the market to confirm that the work has been archived.

In addition to antitrust issues there are further issues.

1. Sustainability. The proposal increases the carbon foot print of the web.
2. User interests. PATWG charter states "support advertising while acting in the interests of users". The proposal increases the probability of fraud which puts users at risk.

The longer this issue remains open and unaddressed the greater the harm to the market will be given the market dominance of participants affiliated companies.

Web privacy can be improved in other ways that do not breach the W3C antitrust guidelines and foster decentralization.

[AramZS]

We will refer your concern to the W3C representative to the working group. Until they have a response on this we will lock the issue.