From: Pekka Savola <pekkas(_at_)netcore(_dot_)fi>
...
.. If it takes a lawyer to write (or understand) licensing terms, they're
probably too complex ..
Something like "the programmer who is his own IP lawyer has a fool for
a client" applies.
In other words, if you need to sign a license, then it takes a lawyer
to understand its terms.
10 or 15 years ago people said that free RFCs versus expensive ITU
(ISO) standards were a major advantage of the DDN Protocol Suite.
Today, the cost of necessary legal advice dwarfs those old
documentation fees by orders of magnitude.
This is all merely sweeping against the tide. I predict all of this
noise will come to nothing but affirming the IETF's IP status quo.
The IETF has always had too many people who without the faintest clue
or interest in implementing anything, except when they mean "unpack
a box and plug it in." That problem has continued to worsen over the
years and has been joined by another problem. Many of the ever fewer
IETF implementors (or their employers) now hope to get rich (or avoid
bankruptcy) by selling IP licenses.
Vernon Schryver vjs(_at_)rhyolite(_dot_)com