Re: Stupid question: How are "the rights to represent the Sponsor" as codified in BCP78 and BCP79...

[Don Armstrong <don at donarmstrong.com>]

On Fri, 14 Dec 2007, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
> I don't mean that the IETF should wilfully ignore rights; but we
> *presume* that contributors aren't misrepresenting their rights when
> they make a contribution.

We can presume that, but in the case where someone has misrepresented
their rights to contributed works, the IETF doesn't magically get the
rights to them either.

> If a party other than the contributor later asserts that the
> contributor misrepresented their rights, that would obviously end up
> in the hands of the IETF's counsel. This has happened, extremely
> rarely, and been resolved by negotiation. It's unlikely to be
> clear-cut, though.

Indeed, thus "the IETF has the right to make derivative works in any
case" is not correct. [Fruit of a poisoned tree, et al.]

To cause problems such as this from breaking out at all is why it's
generally a good idea to require contributor's employers to waive
rights specifically in writing.


Don Armstrong

-- 
Fate and Temperament are two words for one and the same concept.
 -- Novalis [Hermann Hesse _Demian_]

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

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