IETF Logo Mail Archive

IETF and open source license compatibility (Was: Re: yet another comment on draft-housley-tls-authz-extns-07.txt)

Jari Arkko <jari.arkko@piuha.net> Thu, 12 February 2009 12:41 UTC

Return-Path: <jari.arkko@piuha.net>
X-Original-To: ietf@core3.amsl.com
Delivered-To: ietf@core3.amsl.com
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by core3.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7A6EC28C1D6 for <ietf@core3.amsl.com>; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:41:07 -0800 (PST)
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at amsl.com
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Score: -2.468
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.468 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[AWL=0.131, BAYES_00=-2.599]
Received: from mail.ietf.org ([64.170.98.32]) by localhost (core3.amsl.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id FoYdSx+Zx163 for <ietf@core3.amsl.com>; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:41:06 -0800 (PST)
Received: from smtp.piuha.net (p130.piuha.net [IPv6:2001:14b8:400::130]) by core3.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 806EC28C178 for <ietf@ietf.org>; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:41:06 -0800 (PST)
Received: from smtp.piuha.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.piuha.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0957919870C; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:41:11 +0200 (EET)
Received: from [127.0.0.1] (unknown [IPv6:2001:14b8:400::130]) by smtp.piuha.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id A81EE1986EE; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:41:10 +0200 (EET)
Message-ID: <49941899.5010506@piuha.net>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:39:53 +0200
From: Jari Arkko <jari.arkko@piuha.net>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (X11/20090105)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org>
Subject: IETF and open source license compatibility (Was: Re: yet another comment on draft-housley-tls-authz-extns-07.txt)
References: <87bpt9ou7d.fsf@mocca.josefsson.org> <C5B8BAE5.30347%stewe@stewe.org> <87k57vlwfu.fsf@mocca.josefsson.org>
In-Reply-To: <87k57vlwfu.fsf@mocca.josefsson.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format="flowed"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV using ClamSMTP
Cc: ietf@ietf.org
X-BeenThere: ietf@ietf.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
List-Id: IETF-Discussion <ietf.ietf.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf>, <mailto:ietf-request@ietf.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf>
List-Post: <mailto:ietf@ietf.org>
List-Help: <mailto:ietf-request@ietf.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf>, <mailto:ietf-request@ietf.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:41:07 -0000

Simon,

>>> That's not possible because the IETF policies does not permit free
>>> software compatible licensing on Internet drafts published by the IETF.
>>>       
...
> See RFC 5378:
>
>    It is also important to note that additional copyright notices are
>    not permitted in IETF Documents except ...
...
>
> The IETF copying conditions are not compatible with free software
> licenses (modification is not allowed), and additional copyright notices
> are not permitted.  The vast majority of free software licenses is built
> on the concept of copyright notices and requires preserving the
> copyright notice.
>   

I agree that there are problematic case, but I believe I hope everyone 
realizes this is only the case if the RFC in question has code. 
Otherwise it really does not matter. Only some RFCs have code.

I support experiments in this space, though. And it would be really good 
to get more of the open source folk participate in IETF specification 
work. There are many important open source extensions and protocols that 
fit in IETF's scope but were never documented. Even if source code is 
freely available, you could have several implementations, commercial vs. 
open source interoperability issues, etc.

Jari

v2.35.0 | Report a Bug | By Email | System Status