On Aug 8, 2013, at 5:42 AM, t.p. <daedulus(_at_)btconnect(_dot_)com> wrote:
Chris
I would not like to see the Trust Agreement change to accommodate issues
one or two - I think that the agreement got that one right.
Thank you for this feedback.
Three is different. The Trust ought to be able to dispose of rights
that are not needed, never will be and are costing money. But how can
that be expressed without giving carte blanche to dispose of everything,
for whatever purposes? We need a proposal as to how that line would be
drawn - I do not have any sound ideas on this.
I think providing thoughtful language around seeking community feedback and
requiring time frames to dispose of items would be needed in this case.
Can you indicate what annual or one-off costs we are talking about? The
domain names I have dealt with have been cheap enough not to be
concerned about, once I found the best way to deal with them, although I
understand that the IETF is operating in a different realm and so may
have costs of a different magnitude.
I agree some domains are not very expensive, however trademarks require legal
work for registering and filing for them. While not huge numbers, we want to
raise the issue that keeping these items requires overhead and expense that
seems to not be warranted in some cases, and we want to discussed and get
feedback on if keeping these and paying for them makes sense.
Thanks
Tom Petch
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Griffiths" <cgriffiths(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com>
To: <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2013 7:48 AM
IETF Community,
The IETF Trust Trustees would like feedback from the community on
several issues:
- We have received requests that we cannot accommodate and have
consulted legal counsel to review our options
- The trust agreement does not allow the trustees to effectively manage
some trust assets
The Trust was created in December 2005 by the Internet Society and the
Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) for the purpose of
"the advancement of education and public interest by acquiring, holding,
maintaining and licensing certain existing and future intellectual
property and other property used in connection with the Internet
standards process and its administration, for the advancement of the
science and technology associated with the Internet and related
technology."
<http://trustee.ietf.org/docs/IETF-Trust-Agreement-Executed-12-15-05.pdf
Issue 1
We have recently been asked permission to republish the TAO with a
creative commons license, but according to counsel, the current trust
agreement does not give the trustees the rights to do this.
- Without specific language being added to the trust agreement, we
cannot grant these types of requests.
- The current open request for a creative commons license from 6/18/2013
cannot be completed.
Issue 2
We cannot currently accept physical assets like hardware donations into
the trust. Once accepted into the trust, we would be unable to dispose
of these items in the future if they are identified as no longer being
needed.
- This removes flexibility in managing assets in the trust, and we
currently use alternative methods of accepting donations outside of the
trust.
Issue 3
Once a domain name or trademark is registered by the trust, it cannot be
abandoned even if it is no longer needed.
- We must maintain these in perpetuity based on legal counsel review of
the current language
You can also find the latest trust report that covers these items and
was presented at the IETF 87 plenary here:
http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/87/slides/slides-87-iesg-opsplenary-4
Thank you and we look forward to getting your feedback.
Chris Griffiths
Chair, IETF Trust