On Wed, 29 May 2002, Tony Hain wrote:
If what you are asking for is that for every proposal / i-d that shows
up in the IETF, the IPR holder is automatically required to provide an
RF license, you really don't understand the reason people bother with
patents to begin with.
That makes about as much sense as saying:
"If what you are asking for is that for every passenger that gets on an
airplane, the passenger is automatically required to surrender any weapons
they may have, you really don't understand the reason people bother with
weapons to begin with."
The debate is already tricky enough without falsely accusing the other
side of naivety. They often know *exactly* why people bother with
patents, but may not share the same goals.
In general, the W3C seems to be on the right track on this issue, though
it continues to be a very painful process, and is by no means complete.
See this page for more details:
http://www.w3.org/2001/ppwg/
Rob