Re: [antitrust-policy] Should the IETF allow discussion of licensing costs

[Brian E Carpenter <[e-mail]>]

On 2012-01-21 11:07, Thomas Narten wrote:
> IANAL. That said...

Ditto

>> 3.  If you said yes to either 1 or 2, should *discussion *of those
>> licensing costs be allowed?
> 
> Disallowed? That may be going too far. Should we do so? Probably not,
> in the *vast* majority of cases. What reasonable discussion could be
> had, and what concrete actions could come out of such a discussion?

I could imagine a discussion concluding that a specific $ amount was
too great a disincentive, so that the WG needs to look for an alternative
technology. Counsel needs to advise us whether that would be OK in
an open meeting; I assume it might be problematic in a private meeting
between people from different companies.

But in practice the disclosures we get only say "reasonable" and that
doesn't lead us very far.

   Brian