> ... we should prefer technology which will be available
royalty-free, but that's not current policy
Whose policy?
Some WGs have a policy (or are actually chartered) to develop deployable
protocols. Where a legal issue would make a protocol non-deployable, we have to
look elsewhere. (Of course, that only applies to parts of the IETF -- maybe one
reason why an IETF-wide policy may be harder to come up with than e.g. in the W3C.)
Oh, and I would rather avoid the confusing term royalty-free. Imagine a
"technology" that is licensed royalty-free to end-users (i.e., every single user
has to pay a lawyer to get a license contract in place, which then is
royalty-free). Royalty-free, but useless.
Lawyer-free/paperwork-free would be the more useful criterion.
Gruesse, Carsten