On Wed, 2004-08-25 at 13:19, Alan Hodgson wrote:
[snip]
Now, fast-forward another few years. Since the IETF allowed this to happen
once, they will allow it again, and again. In 10 years you may have to sign
50 or 100 different license agreements in order to use the code
required to function on the Internet.
Can you not see the problem here? Do you really think the open source
community will allow this to come to pass?
Well, I, for one, surer than death and taxes, hope not. Which is why
I took the chance and posted to mxcomp, even though I have never posted
before.
I encourage others to do the same. MARID is in last call NOW. Time
is running out.
But, I have one word of caution. I've been on both spf-discuss and
ietf-mxcomp for a while now and it's quite clear there is a stark
difference between the two. This list is *much* less formal and though
posting anti-Microsoft or anti-GPL rants is frowned upon, it's generally
forgiven and forgotten. Do that more than once on ietf-mxcomp and you
may find yourself banned. Take a look at the archives and find my post,
then find Gordon Fecyk's (presumable) response. It was a general
response to those 'high priests' of that 'GNU/FSF camp', full of vitriol
and insults. Read my response and Andrew Newton's response.
So to say that the list is biased in favor of this patent license and
wants to shun the pro-FOSS camp (or at least the anti-MS Sender-ID
patent license camp) is to misunderstand why some posters were scolded
(including RMS himself) for their 'Microsoft is at it again' posts. A
number of the most vocal posters are in favor of pushing Sender-ID
forward with the current patent license. Though they haven't
necessarily been *kind* to those opposed, they've stayed, for the most
part, on the right side of civility. Gordon's post did not. And if
yours is not, you will be warned by one of the co-chairs as well.
So save the anti/pro-MS and anti/pro-GPL rants for another list.
Stick to the facts. But don't shy away from posting just because it's
your first post. State your mind now, but on ietf-mxcomp, because we
are running out of time.
Oh, and before you do post, please read the guidelines posted by
Andrew Newton on Monday 8/23 titled "Working Group Last Call on Sender
ID documents" and stick to them as closely as possible.
--
-Paul Iadonisi
Senior System Administrator
Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist
Ever see a penguin fly? -- Try Linux.
GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets