Incoming - software licenses

[Black_David at emc.com]

I just sent a Last Call issue on software licenses and the -outgoing
document, which I think is a clarification issue.  The interaction
of software licenses and the incoming document is more "interesting".
I should apologize in advance to Simon, as I think he's been over this
ground in much more detail, and I have not had the time to review
what he's done.

There should be a general goal that if incoming code has a software
license, then that license should be consistent with the following
provision of the outbound document:

   As such, the rough consensus is that the IETF trust is to grant
   rights such that code components of IETF contributions can be
   extracted, modified, and used by anyone in any way desired.

and so use of licenses that are not consistent (e.g., copyleft,
patent provisions) ought to be discouraged when there's an alternative.
When there's no alternative, things appear to get "interesting".
Some of these licenses could prevent contribution of code to IETF
because they restrict the copyright grant to the IETF Trust
(Section 5.3 of -incoming) in a fashion that cannot be dealt
with by prohibiting derivative works.

Let me stop here to allow the WG chair to determine whether
discussion of the "interesting" consequences is in scope.  At a
minimum, we probably ought to agree on goals (e.g., do we want to
be able to accept GPL-licensed code in contributions?, should this
be a normal or exceptional procedure?) before discussing mechanisms
to achieve the goals.

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_david at emc.com        Mobile: +1 (978) 394-7754
----------------------------------------------------




----------------------------------------------------
David L. Black, Senior Technologist
EMC Corporation, 176 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
+1 (508) 293-7953             FAX: +1 (508) 293-7786
black_david at emc.com        Mobile: +1 (978) 394-7754
----------------------------------------------------


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