John C Klensin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > But we're talking here about IETF standards, specifications > > that are prepared cooperatively and for free by talented > > individuals, companies and countries around the world. These > > specifications are intended for implementation everywhere to > > facilitate communications among us all. > >... > > Larry, with all due respect, if you substitute "ISO/IEC JTC1" or > "IEEE" (at least in the computer and communications areas for > both) in the above statements, they will still be true. The > IETF is not particularly special in this regard.
I agree. There are very good reasons to insist in all fora where standards for protocols and data formats are developed that such standards must not be patent-encumbered. > To me, the question is simply one of whether trying to insist on > an unencumbered regime (whether for technical, economic, or > moral/ religious reasons) is important enough to justify > rejecting, a priori, any encumbered technology. The IETF has > decided, repeatedly, that the answer is "no" and "we want to > look at these things on a case-by-case basis and evaluate the > tradeoffs". While the part that follows the "no" differs, that > is the same conclusion reached by ISO, IEC, IEEE, and others. However the economic importance of insisting that standards must not be patent-encumbered is increasing. Therefore the decisions of the past can not validly be accepted as strong arguments against Larry's current initiative. > If you want to pursue this further, I think it would be helpful > if you started supplying arguments that we haven't heard, > repeatedly, before. Do you have a list of the arguments that you have heard so often already that you're not interested in hearing them again? Greetings, Norbert. -- Norbert Bollow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://Norbert.ch President of the Swiss Internet User Group SIUG http://SIUG.ch Working on establishing a non-corrupt and truly /open/ international standards organization http://OpenISO.org _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@ietf.org https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf
