>Between us (and especially if we agree), I believe we can speak *with >regard to this question* for 95% of the open-source community. This >does not make either of us power-mad dictators intent on domination, >just most peoples' recognized experts on what constitutes an >acceptable open-source license. Just for the record, I don't think you and RMS are power-mad dictators. But ... I'm not sure you represent nearly as many people as you think you do. Here's my problem: I personally know a lot of people who don't agree with you and RMS when it comes to open-source licensing. That's fine, IMHO ... everyone's entitled to their opinion. But out of the people that I know who have an interest in it, a _very large_ majority disagree with you and RMS, and would be very indignant if you or RMS claimed to be speaking for them (FWIW, I don't agree with you and RMS either, but it doesn't bother me enough to make a huge deal out of it). So I have an issue with your 95% figure. Now, there are some obvious problems with my "sampling". I'm not hugely active in the open-source community; you and RMS are, so it's very likely y'all have a better idea what the "pulse" is of the open-source developers. Also, any such sampling I do has the self-selection problem ... I probably hang out with people who think like I do more than I hang out with people who don't think like I do, so obviously I know plenty of people who think like me when it comes to open-source licensing. But ... I think the self-selection problem applies equally to you and RMS. In addition to the self-selection problem, I can't really see any way you could accurately determine how many people agree with you out of the open-source community. In a previous email, you talked about some SourceForge poll ... I'm a SourceForge user myself, and I've never participated in such a poll (and I don't think that even if I did, it would truely be represenative of the "open source community" ... I'm not sure we could even agree on who is an open source developer. Sure _you_ could tell me who think is an open-source developer, but again, I'm not sure everyone would agree with you). So, in summary, I guess my point can be summed up as follows: - Have you and RMS thought a lot about open source licensing? Absolutely. - Should your opinions on IPR claims be considered by the IETF? Absolutely. - Do you speak for 95% of open source developers on this question? I believe not. - Do you speak for a majority of open source developers on this question? Probably. But I can't back up the last two statements with any facts; I'm just going with my gut on this one. --Ken _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf