RE: [rights] TIME OUT, PLEASE

[Mike Godwin <mnemonic@well.com>]

I too am unsure how the royalty-free issue came to be seen as the 
heart of the disagreements within the TC.  For me the central issue 
is whether the term "rights-expression language" is going to be a 
misnomer or an inaccurate descriptor.


--Mike





At 9:34 AM -0400 9/24/02, DuCharme, Bob (LNG) wrote:
>>>  ...I believe that all of the problems can be boiled
>>>  down to this: Some of the members of the TC joined in
>>>  order to work on XrML, and others joined to work on what
>>>  they hoped would be an RF rights language....
>
>>JSE: No, it isn't that simple. RF is an issue, critical for some, but
>arguably
>>even *more* critical is ensuring that the requirements of a broad, diverse
>>constiuency are solicited, collected and considered, and that the best
>possible
>>rights expression language be created through an open authoring process.
>
>I strongly agree with John. RF/RAND issues are one aspect of the current
>RLTC tension, but they're not the root of the problem. Those who joined the
>TC's founders were told that a strategy and schedule were already in place,
>and that this strategy was somehow in the charter (I still don't see where,
>myself), and that it was therefore not their place to question it. They've
>been accused, and I quote, of "dreaming" and "pretending" otherwise in the
>last general meeting. Their frustration is understandable.
>
>Unlike some, I've carefully avoided using the phrase "rubber-stamp," which
>to me implies turning XrML 2.1 into an OASIS standard. I still believe that
>the original sponsors of the RLTC are open to changes to XrML on its way to
>becoming an OASIS standard, and some ContentGuard representatives have been
>very helpful in helping me determine changes that would fit my own company's
>use cases. Still, I want to submit something more akin to an XrML 3.0 to the
>OASIS body as a standard to vote on, not an XrML 2.2. I don't consider
>throwing an XrML 2.2 requirements list over the wall to be a good start.
>John has explained better than I can the steps that will be necessary to get
>to a major upgrade of XrML that we can all be proud to call an OASIS rights
>expression language.
>
>Bob DuCharme
>Consulting Software Engineer, LexisNexis
>Data Architecture, Editorial Systems and Content Engineering
>
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-- 
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"I speak the password primeval .... I give the sign of democracy ...."
            --Walt Whitman
Mike Godwin can be reached by phone at 202-637-9800
His book, CYBER RIGHTS, can be ordered at
	http://www.panix.com/~mnemonic .
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