At 4:13 PM -0700 6/5/06, Lawrence Rosen wrote:
>You start your question by saying "If a
distinction needs to be drawn
>between code and non-code in IETF documents...."
>
>I believe this entire exercise of separating code from
text is a silly waste
>of time. Other then the "I don't want to and so I
won't" excuse some have
>given for refusing to treat all contributions as
"code," can anyone think of
>a reason why the burden of distinguishing between the
two is worth the cost?
>
>Let's please just say that any contributions made to an
IETF standard can be
>copied or modified by anyone who reads it. Why not? What
possible rights in
>a copyrighted contribution does any contributor *need*
to reserve? For what
>earthly purpose?
>
>/Larry
Oh look, it's a road we've been down before. The scenery
is nice down this
particular lane, isn't it? Pretty!
First, let's not conflate the right to copy with the right
to modify *again*, okay?
Second, there are reasons a contributor might not want you
to modify his words
(since they are the perfect expression of his intent, after
all), but would
allow you to modify his code (since *its* perfection might
have to fit into
whatever compiler or environment you have to deal with).
Third, I don't care whether they *need* to reserve that
right; some *want* to,
and this being a volunteer organization where contributors
can re-allocate
their time on other things means we should pay attention to
it unless it does
us real harm. I personally don't think we should be asking
for more rights than
we need to do our work, since I believe that principle of
parsimony allows and
encourages the widest possible participation. Losing
participants *is* real
harm, and as someone who has to arm-twist on many fronts, I
don't think
we can afford it. If people *want* to grant more rights, I
think we should
make it is easy for them to do so, but that is a far cry
from saying that they
*have* to.
Hoping we can get back off Memory Lane,
Ted Hardie
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