At Thu, 10 Feb 2005 06:59:20 -0500, Margaret Wasserman wrote:
>
> According to my local dictionary, "bestween" isn't even a word. The
> MS-Word copy that Lynn circulated uses the word "between" here, so
> this is a typo in the ASCII diff.
>
> I am doubtful that "As between, the IETF, IASA and ISOC, the IETF,
> through IASA, shall have..." is not standard grammar, legal or
> otherwise. Could we ask the lawyer if something was lost in
> translation somwhere? Or, perhaps there is a more conventional way
> to say this that would also meet with legal approval?
For reference, the complete text in question is:
7. As between, the IETF, IASA and ISOC, the IETF, through the IASA,
shall have a perpetual right to use, display, distribute,
reproduce, modify and create derivatives of all software and data
created in support of IETF activities.
and the change from -06 to -07 was the addition of the prefix "As
between, the IETF, IASA and ISOC,".
I'd like to second Margaret's request. While I'm certainly not a
lawyer, I am reasonably confident that I understand both grammer and
punctuation for the major dialects of English, and I'm pretty sure
that the new text simply does not parse. For all I know it's flawless
Early High Canal Martian, but IETF documents are supposed to be
written in English, and this new text is not.
Ordinarily I'd consider this a purely editorial issue, but since the
text in question was dictated by a lawyer: Lynn (or Harald, or
somebody) could you please either get ISOC's lawyer to rephrase the
new text in the vernacular or let us revert to the -06 version of this
paragraph?
In view of Harald's ticking clock: I have no problem with treating
this as an editorial issue if ISOC's lawyer tells us that's all it
is. If this was intended to be a substantive change, we need an
explanation for what it was supposed to mean.
Last, for those wondering how one of the document editors could be
puzzled by text that ended up in the document: even editors take time
off, at least this one does, when it's ski season.
Thanks!
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