Hi John,
At 09:49 20-09-2012, John C Klensin wrote:
post-expiration. I think that, as a community, we ought to
respect those assumptions more than saying, effectively, "we are
going to maintain a public archive no matter what commitments
you thought were made to you because we can and because we don't
think you will actually sue us". The latter is just bad for the
community, whether it "works" or not.
In a past century there was a discussion about maintaining a public
archive of expired I-Ds. There is a striking difference in the
arguments; there wasn't much discussion about the legal
side. Nowadays an individual has to hire a practicing lawyer from
the state of Virginia before making any contribution.
It was also argued that the IETF would need a policy to decide on
whether to turn I-Ds into an archival series. IENs and RFCs where
mentioned. In those ancient times the question was also about
distribution instead of publication. It was also pointed out that it
was better not to perpetuate bad ideas. There wasn't any mention of
the social contract. At a guess it was probably because everything
was not a matter of "rights" or legal issues. Or it might be that
social contracts were part of the obvious.
A sift of long disagreements might show that the sensible "opposing"
argument is often missed because of the sugarcoating. A dismissive
attitude might also have something to do with that.
Consensus is when no man or woman is left standing on the battlefield.
Regards,
-sm