I was reading some news late today when I noticed this. http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/02/help-fight-this-patent-encumbered-ietf.html http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=1845 http://www.fsf.org/news/reoppose-tls-authz-standard Hopefully I'm not to late to add myself as another person who opposes standards that are encumbered will patents. I have only had minor input into standard processes before as you might note I'm listed in rfc3986 section 9 as a contributor. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986 I also have recently mentioned the rfc process as something that is something to be looked up to. Specifically I mentioned "I'd like to see an rfc or similar that is free from patent concerns." . So my concerns about patents in standards is something that I consider important to avoid. http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/02/introducing-white-spaces-database-group.html I acknowledge that the Internet Engineering Task Force and the rfc process has a vital part of our shared Internet infrastructure, but I'd also like to acknowledge the important of source available software that was unencumbered with patent restraints: from Bind, Sendmail, BSD, GNU/Linux, Apache, Firefox, Konqueror, and many others. A vital part of our shared Internet culture is the ability to have transparency of the working of the communication protocols and the freedom for many diverse parties to participate. Patents in software threaten to undermine the strength of this culture. I consider the ability to implement this technique in either a gpl or a bsd licensed program without further permission and being able to be shipped by Red Hat, Canonical, Novel, the various bsds to be a litmus standard for whether the legal terms are acceptable or not. While the ietf can't directly fight against patents by directly changing the laws or issuing court decisions like the recent Bilski case; I think it's important to stand up to anti-social folks like RedPhone and say that exclusionary practises like enforcing patents is not a part of what drives the Internet and is not a acceptable social custom. _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf