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Re: Topic drift Re: An Internet Draft as reference material

2000-09-30 17:40:02
Are you trying to tell me that somebody can publish a draft, and then
"let it expire" just because they don't like the changes that other
people suggest?  Does the author get veto power over improvements
that a working group agrees to?

there are two separate issues here:  

it seems to me that an author really does have the right to
just let a draft expire if he/she cannot get folks to agree
that his/her solution (and expression of that solution)
to whatever problem is the right way to go.  we certainly 
cannot force the author to modify the document to suit someone
else's tastes (especially when they're wrong!).  nor can
we expect the author to accept publication of the document
with an implict "rejected" stamp.  

on the other hand, in my mind publication of an internet-draft
is implicitly granting the right to others in the community to
use and tweak those ideas in other proposals (with the possible
exception of I-Ds with the restricted boilerplate option),
and perhaps even to make derivative works from the original draft.
the original author's wishes should be respected regarding the
granting of credit - whether he/she wants co-authorship, an 
explicit acknowledgement, or to disclaim it entirely.

Keith