Re: Outgoing section 5.5 and draft-josefsson (Re: San Diego meetingslot)

[Don Armstrong <don at donarmstrong.com>]

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006, David B Harrington wrote:
> In the same way the author list was abused, I can see copyrighting
> sections of an RFC being abused. Corporations would love to embed
> licenses in industry standards, and the IETF has opposed that
> practice for a long time (it is losing the battle, but we tried).

There's nothing wrong with licenses embedded in standards, so long as
they grant the needed rights. [Granted, it's doubtful that
corporations would want to embed licenses which grant these rights
over more restrictive licenses.]

> I think allowing contributors to copyright their contributions is
> simply not a useful way to go, even if the contribution is a section
> of code.

Unless the IETF starts requiring copyright assignment, that is the way
that it will be (and indeed, is the way it has been.) I'm not in favor
of copyright assignment unless it comes with a reciprocal unlimited
licensing grant from the IETF to the copyright holder doing the
assignment.[1]

What we should do instead is make sure that works submitted to the
IETF are licensed by the copyright holders in a manner that enables
the IETF to do the things that the IETF needs to do (and likewise the
users of IETF standards.)
 

Don Armstrong

1: And frankly, getting companies to sign on to this will be a bit
difficult.
-- 
"Facts" are the refuge of people unwilling to reassess what they hold
to be "True".

http://www.donarmstrong.com              http://rzlab.ucr.edu

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