Re: Section 6.5: Additional Licenses for IETF Contributions

[John C Klensin <john-ietf at jck.com>]

--On Monday, 14 May, 2007 09:22 -0700 todd glassey
<tglassey at earthlink.net> wrote:

>>   In draft x author X reproduces code y written by Y.  Author
>>   X got the permission of Y to do this, and might note it in
>>   the acknowledgements of draft x:  "Thanks to Y for the
>>   permission to reproduce code y in this contribution,
>>   readers can use code y as specified in BCP 78bis."
> 
> How does the submitter prove they have legal capability to
> submit third-party IP's to the IETF or does the IETF even care?

Todd,

You may disagree based on your extensive legal experience, but
my impression is that, if the IETF requires that the submitter
assert that he, she, or it has that permission/capability, then,
if the submitter is (deliberately or not) incorrect about that,
it is mostly the submitter's problem, not the IETF's.  That is,
IMO, the right situation since one doesn't want the IETF in the
business of trying to evaluate who has which permissions and who
does not ... or, to put that in the context of your note, of
evaluating whether the submitter's proof is adequate.

I suggest that, for these types of issues --remembering that we
are talking about copyrights and not patents-- we want the IETF
to act as nearly as possible in the role of a publisher who does
not get in the middle of those ownership rights disputes.   Even
if we were talking about patents, the IETF would be publishing
information that is supposed to be public, not "practicing" the
invention.

      john


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