On Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:48:08 +0100
Simon Josefsson <simon(_at_)josefsson(_dot_)org> wrote:
"Steven M. Bellovin" <smb(_at_)cs(_dot_)columbia(_dot_)edu> writes:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:38:44 +0100
Simon Josefsson <simon(_at_)josefsson(_dot_)org> wrote:
The discussion started by Stephan suggesting that free software
authors publish their work as free standards in the IETF. My point
was that since the IETF disallow publishing standards under a
license that is compatible with free software licensing (e.g.,
allows modification), it is not possible for free software authors
to do this. Thus, to me, this discussion is not related to
comments in source code at all.
My understanding of IETF policy is that the IETF will publish I-Ds
that are in the public domain. Nothing is freer than that. You're
perfectly free to put your text in the public domain before
submitting it for publication as an RFC.
Sure, but I can also put the text under the Microsoft EULA before
submitting it for publication as an RFC. The IETF still requires some
assurances from me as contributor, and those assurances go beyond both
what the public domain and the Microsoft EULA implies.
A more interesting question is if you can submit somebody else's
public domain work to the IETF. I don't know the answer to that.
Legally, yes; it's public domain. Academic honesty and common courtesy
would demand an acknowledgment.
It
seems clear that I can't take a work licensed under the Microsoft
EULA and submit it to the IETF though.
Right, which is why I suggested public domain and not the Microsoft
EULA....
More generally: if the goal is to have some text that can be freely
used in any software -- proprietary, open source, GPL -- there's
nothing more amenable to that than public domain. That may not meet
all of the FSF's goals, but I don't really see that that's the IETF's
problem.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
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