Dear IETF,
Moved by the FSF's public call, I have read the Fourth Last Call on
draft-housley-tls-authz-extns at
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf-announce/current/msg05617.html, and
the associated IPR disclosure 1026. As far as I understand those documents,
their meaning is that while the standard per se can be implemented without
licensing RedPhone Security's patent, such implementations will actually not
be interoperable with implementations using patented techniques and formats.
In addition, RedPhone's pledge to grant licenses in a 'fair and
nondiscriminatory manner' all but makes it certain that some implementors
will be forced to due without such licenses, as what is usually
considered 'fair' in patent licensing, can be, and usually is, incompatible
with Free Software.
Accepting the standard will serve only to drive wedges in the Internet, the
opposite of the purpose of any standard. It will attempt to marginalize Free
Software, which can probably only marginalize the standard itself, or, even,
the standards body.
Please don't go there. Please don't settle for RAND licensing, and only accept
Perpetual Royalty-Free licenses for patents required for implementing
standards.
Sincerely,
Shai Berger.
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