--On Friday, 21 January, 2005 15:42 +0100 Harald Tveit
Alvestrand <harald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> From Jorge:
>
> 3. Legal Advice.
>
> (Apologies if I sound biased about this one, but....)
>
> Although the IAD and IASA have responsibility for negotiating
> and
> approving all contracts relating to IETF, there is no
> indication that they are expected or even encouraged to seek
> legal advice
> regarding these contracts. Given the unclear language of some
> of the historical IETF-related contracts, I think it would be
> advisable to set forth a principle that the IAD should seek
> legal advice regarding any material contract that he/she
> negotiates. This would exclude routine contracts for things
> like office services, but should definitely apply to the
> contracts with ISOC, IANA, ICANN, the RFC Editor, the
> conference organizer (whether it's CNRI, Fortec, or somebody
> else), and any contract that
> relates to the development of data, software or other IP.
Good catch. And yes.
> Moreover, I think that an express statement should be made that
> the IAD/IASA should obtain "independent" legal advice. That
> is,
> from legal counsel who are not ISOC's counsel. This will serve
> to reinforce the independence of IETF from ISOC.
While it isn't easy to think of cases where conflicts of
interest might arise, this seems to be to be useful at best and
harmless at worse. And, as you point out, it has useful
symbolic value, although I would have stated that last sentence
as "...of IASA from ISOC".
john
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