Evaluation: draft-housley-tls-authz-extns-07.txt to Proposed Standard

["Dimitrios P. Bouras" <[e-mail]>]

 Dear Sir's

 I am writing to oppose approval of the patent encumbered authz
extension of the
 TLS authorization protocol as submitted by Mark Brown of "RedPhone
Security"
 and Russell Housley of "Vigil Security LLC", and published in:

    http://tools.ietf.org/wg/tls/draft-housley-tls-authz-extns-07.txt

 I have been alerted to the fact that "RedPhone Security" has applied
for a patent
 which would need to be licensed to anyone wanting to implement and -- more
 importantly -- practice the standard. It is obvious in my mind that
this should be
 by definition unacceptable in an Internet standard, regardless of
whether it is
 proposed as "optional", or as a "proprietary extension". If it is
proprietary -- a
 necessary fact for supporting a patent claim, it can remain in the
domain where
 it originated; there is absolutely no basis for it becoming an Internet
standard.

 In my mind, when the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the
Internet
 Engineering Steering Group (IESG) evaluate new proposals for standards,
they
 should first and foremost make sure that they are not encumbered by
patents or
 any other sort of restriction that would prevent their use by free
software users and
 programmers. This is not the case with this proposed standard, and I
call upon you
 to *not approve* it on any level unless the patent threat is removed
entirely with a
 royalty-free license for all users

 Sincerely,
 Dimitrios P. Bouras

-- 
*Dimitrios P. Bouras*
*M.A.Sc., Ph.D.*
/Telecommunications & IT
Consulting Services/

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