Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust Policy for the IETF
"John R Levine" <johnl@taugh.com> Fri, 20 January 2012 22:40 UTC
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Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:40:44 -0500
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From: John R Levine <johnl@taugh.com>
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Subject: Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust Policy for the IETF
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> I would not anticipate an official "enforcer" either. A main benefit > of the policy is to provide IETF (i.e., ISOC/IETF Trust) a defense if > it is sued for an antitrust violation committed by its participants. > At least the organization can say: "We don't condone that type of > behavior. See our policy that expressly prohibits it." Lawyer: Do you make any attempt to enforce that policy? IETF person: Not really. Lawyer: Have you ever sanctioned anyone for violating it? IETF: No. Lawyer: What would happen if I started talking about price fixing at a meeting? IETF: I hope someone would tell you to stop. Lawyer: What would happen if I didn't? IETF: Probably nothing. This would not impress any judge I know. An anti-trust policy is different from our existing policies. The current policies are about stuff we want, from informal rules about no want ads to the IPR rules intended to keep someone from pulling another Rambus. (Given the history of RFCs, I don't think there is any serious chance of a copyright suit.) Anti-trust rules are intended to minimize the chance that the IETF gets dragged into an anti-trust suit as a co-conspirator, or to help get such a suit dismissed as easily as possible. An unenforced policy doesn't do that. If you want to publish an info sheet about how anti-trust law might apply to IETF participants, sure, go ahead. But please don't say it's a policy if it isn't. Meta-question: The IETF presumably expects participants to obey all applicable laws. I presume nobody thinks we need a policy about smoking marijuana at meetings. Why is this different? R's, John
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … John R Levine
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Brian E Carpenter
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … John R Levine
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … david.black
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … John Levine
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Marshall Eubanks
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … david.black
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … david.black
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Russ Housley
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Marshall Eubanks
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … John R Levine
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Jorge Contreras
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Jorge Contreras
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Marshall Eubanks
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … John R Levine
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Marshall Eubanks
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … John R Levine
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Stephen Farrell
- Re: [antitrust-policy] Who enforces an Antitrust … Russ Housley
- Re: [antitrust-policy] An antitrust memo strawman John Levine