Re: Call for volunteers to discuss IETF patent policy with Richard Stallman

[Richard M Stallman <rms at gnu.org>]

    Without debating your point about the terminology, the IPR working
    group was concerned with copyright as well. 

Patents raise an issue of whether people will be allowed to use the
standard.  Copyrights raise an issue of writing a spec that the IETF
can publish.

Both issues are important for the IETF, but aside from that, they are
totally different.  The term "IPR" encourages people to suppose they
are similar, and lump them together.  That is an obstacle to thinking
clearly about the issues.

I won't say it is impossible to resist the influence of the term "IPR"
and think properly about each issue despite it.  But why use a term
that exerts a bad influence?  Better to avoid it.