The Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project oppose publication of
draft-housley-tls-authz-extns as an experimental standard.
The patent application disclosed by RedPhone Security has put any free software
attempting to implement these extensions in a very difficult position. Free
software developers cannot safely code to the specifications without risking
infringement on RedPhone's patents. As a result of these concerns and the
uncertain situation they create, GnuTLS has removed support for them in its
latest release -- and no other software maintained by the GNU Project will be
written to them.
We know that the IETF and IESG largely share our view that patent-encumbered
standards are unacceptable. We believe that the process has reached the proper
conclusion -- the draft has been rejected as a standard. Please do not allow
this decision to be negated by publishing it on the experimental track.
We agree with Sam Hartman that "often it seems that we use informational as a
way to publish things we cannot build a strong consensus behind. I think that
process is generally problematic and would like to avoid it in this instance,"
and with Simon Josefsson that "[g]iven that the initial last call was to put
the document on the standards track, my impression would be that this last call
request for the experimental track is indeed intended to circumvent the normal
process."
In the long term, widespread adoption of something published on this track
would put software authors in the same bad position as if the document were
approved as a standard. Please respect the consensus that has been reached and
do not publish this draft.
On behalf of Richard Stallman, FSF, and GNU,
--
John Sullivan
Campaigns Manager | Phone: (617)542-5942 x23 | http://badvista.org
51 Franklin Street, 5th Fl. | Fax: (617)542-2652 | http://www.gnu.org
Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA | GPG: AE8600B6 | http://www.fsf.org
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