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Re: An Antitrust Policy for the IETF

2011-12-01 20:28:25
+1

On Dec 1, 2011, at 1:44 PM, Christian Huitema wrote:

Note that the suit does not complain about the 3GPP and ETSI rules. It 
alleges instead that the rules were not enforced, and that the leadership of 
these organization failed to prevent the alleged anti-competitive behavior of 
some companies.

I believe that our current rules are fine. They were specifically designed to 
prevent the kind of collusion described in the complaint. Yes, these rules 
were defined many years ago, but the Sherman Antitrust Act is even older -- 
it dates from 1890. We have an open decision process, explicit rules for 
intellectual property, and a well-defined appeals process. If the plaintiffs 
in the 3GPP/IETF lawsuit had been dissatisfied with an IETF working group, 
they could have use the IETF appeal process to raise the issue to the IESG, 
and the dispute would probably have been resolved after an open discussion.

Rather than trying to set up rules that cover all hypothetical developments, 
I would suggest a practical approach. In our process, disputes are 
materialized by an appeal. Specific legal advice on the handling of a 
specific appeal is much more practical than abstract rulemaking.

-- Christian Huitema



-----Original Message-----
From: ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org 
[mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of Joel jaeggli
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 8:56 AM
To: Jorge Contreras
Cc: Ted Hardie; IETF Chair; IETF; IESG
Subject: Re: An Antitrust Policy for the IETF

On 11/28/11 12:58 , Jorge Contreras wrote:
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 2:35 PM, GTW <gtw(_at_)gtwassociates(_dot_)com 
<mailto:gtw(_at_)gtwassociates(_dot_)com>> wrote:

   __
   Ted, I like your approach of enquiring what problem we are striving
   to solve and I like Russ's concise answer that it is "Recent suits
   against other SDOs that  is the source of the concern" 

   Russ, what are  some of the  "Recent suits against other SDOs"  It
   would be good to pin down the problem we are addressing

   There is  FTC and N-data matter from 2008
   http://www.gtwassociates.com/alerts/Ndata1.htm


George -- one recent example is the pending antitrust suit by True 
Position against ETSI, 3GPP and several of their members (who also 
employ some IETF participants, I believe).  Here is some relevant 
language from the Complaint:

When or if that suit is concluded you may be able to divine whether the 
antitrust policy of either SDO was of any value.

"100.   By their failures to monitor and enforce the SSO Rules, and to
respond to TruePosition's  specific complaints concerning violations 
of the SSO Rules, 3GPP and ETSI have acquiesced in, are responsible 
for, and complicit in, the abuse of authority and anticompetitive 
conduct by Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Alcatel-Lucent.  These failures 
have resulted in the issuance of a Release 9 standard tainted by these 
unfair processes, and for the delay until Release 11, at the earliest, 
of a 3GPP standard for UTDOA positioning technology.  By these 
failures, 3GPP and ETSI have authorized and ratified the 
anticompetitive conduct of Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Alcatel-Lucent and 
have joined in and become parties to their combination and conspiracy."


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