Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust Policy for the IETF

[<[e-mail]>]

John Levine asks:

>>    I once heard someone interrupt a speaker by saying "If you don't
>>    stop talking about that right now, I will leave the room, because
>>    of advice from my anti-trust lawyer" (or words to that effect; this
>>    was many years ago). Since this was a pretty prominent IETF
>>    individual, the speaker shut up immediately.

> The speaker was protecting his own interests, which is a perfectly reasonable
> thing to do. That's quite different from drafting us all into the IETF's
> anti-trust enforcement squad.

> "You're not allowed to talk about that." "Yes, I am." Then what? Are WG chairs
> supposed to arbitrate?

That's a possibility.  Here's an example from another standards development
organization's anti-trust policy that requires meeting termination if
discussion of prohibited anti-trust topics does not cease - see the use of
the word "terminate" under "Conduct of Meetings":

http://www.incits.org/inatrust.htm

Of course, meeting termination is a last resort, but if all else fails ...

Thanks,
--David
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