On Jul 25, 2010, at 3:47 AM, Brian E Carpenter wrote: > John Levine asked: > >> Some people have argued that it should be possible to participate in some or all IETF processes while remaining partly or completely anonymous. Is this a reasonable expectation? > > No. Anonymous or pseudonymous contributions would allow a scumbag > patent troll to inject ideas into a standard for which s/he held > an undisclosed patent. I don't see how we can draw a line between > that and other types of contribution. I would agree. I don't have a problem with people obfuscating their identity for purposes that don't matter, but behavior covered by the "Note Well" needs to be explorable legally - that's what the "Note Well" is about. Personally, the people that I know that obfuscate their identity have said they do so because they don't know what will be done with the proper information if they give it. That is an argument for some form of privacy policy, whatever that policy would be. Everywhere else I go, even if it is shopping in the local supermarket, the only way I can be anonymous is by wearing a disguise and paying cash. I'm not sure I "get" the notion that the IETF should be different. _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf