Hi, Russ, > The PR-Action related aspects of a person using a bogus identity seem > easy to address, perhaps using the mechanism that Harald > suggested. However, the implications on IPR are much harder. In the > IETF, posting to a maillist and speaking at a meeting are two ways of > making contributions. If we have the ability to speak > anonymously, how can the contributions be traced to a real person or > company to support their IPR > warranties/licenses. > > This leads me to a conclusion that we need a clear policy stating > that communications need to be linked to the real, verifiable persons > making them. OK, this is restating the point that I first thought about replying to, but stopped myself the first time. What problem is anonymous posting causing, that would not also be caused by (for example) Spencer posting a draft saying "By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79" ... if I won't disclose them? Or Spencer posting an IPR statement that my IETF Sponsor Organization does/does not have IPR that applies to a specific draft, and would/would not be willing to execute licenses with specific terms ... ... if none of my statements are true? I have a small imagination, but I'm having a hard time visualizing a solution for this problem that doesn't include the words "organizational membership". If we had that, no problem - you wouldn't accept IPR statements from me, you'd accept them from my IETF Sponsor Organization, or at a minumum, you'd assume that my IETF Sponsor Organization would fire me AND sure me in court, if I misbehaved. But we don't have organizational members, and if we did, the IETF would be a very different place. Could someone make some suggestions about how we would actually know that communications are linked to real, verifiable persons making them? Ignoring forged e-mail, etc. of course. Spencer _______________________________________________ IETF mailing list IETF@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf