On Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:48:08 +0100 Simon Josefsson <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:38:44 +0100 > > Simon Josefsson <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > >> The discussion started by Stephan suggesting that free software > >> authors publish their work as free standards in the IETF. My point > >> was that since the IETF disallow publishing standards under a > >> license that is compatible with free software licensing (e.g., > >> allows modification), it is not possible for free software authors > >> to do this. Thus, to me, this discussion is not related to > >> comments in source code at all. > > > > My understanding of IETF policy is that the IETF will publish I-Ds > > that are in the public domain. Nothing is freer than that. You're > > perfectly free to put your text in the public domain before > > submitting it for publication as an RFC. > > Sure, but I can also put the text under the Microsoft EULA before > submitting it for publication as an RFC. The IETF still requires some > assurances from me as contributor, and those assurances go beyond both > what the public domain and the Microsoft EULA implies. > > A more interesting question is if you can submit somebody else's > public domain work to the IETF. I don't know the answer to that. Legally, yes; it's public domain. Academic honesty and common courtesy would demand an acknowledgment. > It > seems clear that I can't take a work licensed under the Microsoft > EULA and submit it to the IETF though. > Right, which is why I suggested public domain and not the Microsoft EULA.... More generally: if the goal is to have some text that can be freely used in any software -- proprietary, open source, GPL -- there's nothing more amenable to that than public domain. That may not meet all of the FSF's goals, but I don't really see that that's the IETF's problem. --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf