"Tom.Petch" <sisyphus(_at_)dial(_dot_)pipex(_dot_)com> writes:
Reading this, and reading it and reading it again, I think we are going
backwards more than is desirable where code is concerned.
I expect that for some years, the s.6.iii.c clause will be common ie no
derivative works outside the Standards process without obtaining an adequate
licence. The s.5.c clause then explains this as meaning that the IETF Trust
will not grant such rights without obtaining sufficient rights to do so from
the
person controlling the pre-5378 material. This seems to trump the additional
rights granted for code in s.4.
I agree. But that is true only for document that exercises the
pre-RFC5378 rule, which in the long term, from what I understand, will
be the exception rather than the rule. There is nothing we can do about
pre-RFC 5378 contributions except to ask the authors to release more
rights to their work.
Where code is concerned, IETF counsel has stated that RFC3978 already gives us
such rights for code, in response to which Simon Joseffson has pointed out
clauses which might be construed differently to which counsel has agreed it
could be clearer but has not changed his advice (eg IPR WG July 2006).
RFC 5378 makes the code licensed under a free software compatible
license, i.e., the BSD license. The RFC 3978 rights, even if they were
granted to third parties, were evaluated by the FSF to be non-free. I
haven't seen anyone claim that the RFC 3978 is a useful software
license. Thus, RFC 5378 is considerably better than RFC 3978 for code.
My lay reading of this new text is that it does not give us an exemption for
code or if it does, then it does so even more obscurely than RFC3978 does and
this I would regard as a retrograde step.
I disagree. The legal provisions from the Trust seems clear to me that
code can be extracted and used under the BSD license. This is a
considerably step forward, and the rules around it does not strike me as
obscure. I wish the rules were less complex, but section 4 of the legal
provisions seems relatively low-complex compared to the rest.
/Simon
_______________________________________________
Ietf mailing list
Ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf