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Re: [IAB] Request for community guidance on issue concerning a future meeting of the IETF

2009-09-21 13:02:34
Bernard Aboba allegedly wrote on 09/18/2009 3:33 PM:
 The IETF does not and cannot make any warranties relating to the
political views, manners or behavior of attendees.   The attendees are
responsible for their own actions, and the IETF has no ability ensure
their conformance to local laws or customers.  If attendees violate the
laws or customs of the host country, they may face consequences -- but
they're on their own.

So if the question is whether the IETF should sign any agreement that
takes responsibility for the behavior attendees, I'd say that this is a
bad idea.   It's not really an issue of politics -- I'd say the same
thing if the meeting were being held in Palm Beach and the city
requested that the IETF take responsibility for ensuring that
participants conformed to the dress code (no white after labor day!).

My reading is that neither the IETF nor the client is being asked to
sign such an agreement.  Individuals are, as you say, on their own.  The
point is about "group activities, presentations and printed materials".

My experience with meetings in China is that I try to control my urge to
poke into every possible embarrassing topic (I try to control that
anyway), and that often I'm surprised when Chinese participants
themselves criticize their own government more than I would have.  IMHO
if the past Net Neutrality discussion were held at the China IETF, it
would certainly be toned down simply because people wouldn't be sure if
they were crossing a line, but a discussion of technical (IETF) issues
related to the topic, and speculation about social implications, would
not in themselves be a problem.  I believe the same is true about
GeoPriv. My personal opinion is that discussion on technical topics can
be conducted in a way which goes into depth but is not "defamation of
the government of the PRC" or shows "disrespect to Chinese culture".
Somehow we've managed to do this in other meetings there.

Scott


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