Comments to WG meeting

David in order for the Author to do any kind of controlling
of the code
rights within the submission the Author as they are named
MUST have a legal
power of attorney for the other contributors and their
sponsors too. The
IETF's license do not do this today and while some may not
feel it an
issue - I believe it to be one.

Todd
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Black_Davidemc.com>
To: <jasextundo.com>; <ipr-wgietf.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 12:16 PM
Subject: RE: Comments to WG meeting


> Simon,
>
> > I don't understand the questions in the
"Proposed Excerpt Policy"
> > slide.  If code excerpts are permitted and MUST be
modifiable -- which
> > BCP78 apparently already intend to say if I
understand Jorge correctly
> > -- that is sufficient to be included in GPLed
code.  No additional
> > rights are needed from the author, if I understand
the slide
> > correctly.
>
> IMHO, that ought to be the case.  On reflection, I
disagree with what
> I believe was asserted in the meeting - namely that the
RFC document
> author should control whether code from an RFC can be
placed under GPL.
> That seems wrong - IETF ought not to aid/abet that sort
of behavior
> any more than it ought to aid/abet prohibitions on
commercial use of
> code in an RFC.  Code published in an RFC should be
freely usable by
> anyone who wants to implement the protocol in the RFC,
period - I
> base this assertion on the assumption that the code in
the RFC is
> essential to implementing the protocol in the RFC.
>
> There is a related issue, in that if code goes under a
license such as
> the GPL and gets modified, it may not be possible to
put the modifications
> back into the IETF to revise the RFC.  To deal with
this, I suggest
> instructing the IETF Trust that:
> - RFC code excerpts should be free software (e.g., BSD
license) that
> can be used for any purpose.
> - Modifications to RFC code excerpts should continue to
be free
> software to the extent legally possible.
> For open source, I can see how to achieve that - the
IETF free software
> license for RFC code excerpts would say that if the
source code containing
> the modified RFC excerpt is publicly redistributed,
then the IETF free
> software license applies to the modified RFC code
excerpt (and only to
> that excerpt, as the "derived work") in the
redistributed code.  I don't
> know what to do for commercial closed source.
>
> > I disagree with "Text excerpts MUST NOT be
modified".  We have plenty
> > of running code in this area -- the getaddrinfo
man page in Solaris
> > and excerpts from RFCs in free source code --
which to me suggest that
> > we should permit modifications of text excerpts. 
People have been
> > putting excerpts from RFCs in modifiable texts for
years, and doing so
> > appear to further the goals of the IETF.  I don't
see how the IETF's
> > goals are furthered by forbidding this commonly
used practice.  There
> > are valid concerns with permitting modifications,
but I think a better
> > balance could be found here.
> >
> > I agree with David Blacka (?), and would like to
thank him for
> > mentioning this, that we should analyze the
consequences for the
> > examples I gave in Vancouver when there is a new
policy.  This also
> > relates to Klensin's (?) request that we review
the policy in a
> > careful paranoid way instead of assuming that
whatever we come up with
> > is clear and correct.
>
> That was me.  While I'm not sure I agree with all of
your examples,
> I strongly believe that the consequences for those
examples need to
> be understood by the WG as part of making the decision.
 I need to
> go back and look at them in my "copious spare
time" ...
>
> Thanks,
> --David
> ----------------------------------------------------
> David L. Black, Senior Technologist
> EMC Corporation, 176 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
> +1 (508) 293-7953             FAX: +1 (508) 293-7786
> black_davidemc.com        Mobile: +1 (978) 394-7754
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ipr-wg mailing list
> Ipr-wgietf.org
> https:/
/www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipr-wg


_______________________________________________
Ipr-wg mailing list
Ipr-wgietf.org
https:/
/www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipr-wg