John Levine wrote:
Apparently, publishing a message as "experimental" is an invitation
by the IETF to experiment with a new protocol. What sense does that
bear, if accepting IETF invitations is likely to result in legal
troubles?
In North America, at least, experimentation per se doesn't infringe
patents.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_exemption
However, it is difficult to exactly trace a boundary between normal
exploitation of a patent and a strictly controlled experiment. For
example, I don't think that all the mail hubs currently using SPF
would be considered mere experiments, but SPF is still experimental.
Of course, if publishing as experimental explicitly included licenses,
that idea might work.
Can we stop playing Junior Lawyer now, please?
That's what I'd hope. This habit of requiring two lawyers and a judge
for every pair of citizens is really annoying. It is the main reason
for seeking unencumbered environments, IMHO. Software is complicated
enough already.
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