* to simply donate the IP to the public domain, with the
rational and implications being explained in an FAQ?
I hope not, that would be sub-optimal. You can ask RMS on this
and you will get the same response.
I have never EVER experienced a real licensing issue when the
holder of the IP announced that it existed at the start of the WG.
The real problem here is not declared IP, its patent trolls.
There is no real cure for patent trolls, the USPTO would
probably grant a patent for SPF if someone sent in an application
today, all it takes is a small amount of perjury that is not going
to be prosecuted.
The reason that a lot of companies (including VeriSign) have started
aggressively patenting is to 1) block other claims and 2) have
collateral against other claims.
What we really want here is a patent grant under the longstanding
terms originaly proposed by HP, i.e. anyone can use the IP to
implement the spec provided that they don't make a claim against
the IP holder wrt other necessary IP.
Now even that is not perfect, but nobody has a scheme that can
deal with a patent troll who is only interested in exploitation.
The requirement for GNU licensed code is actually the weakest of
the requirements we need to meet here. If you are a commercial
software vendor you need a lot more flexibility.
Phill