RE: OASIS / XML.org IP issues

[Bob Glushko <Bob.glushko@commerceone.com>]

Along with the policies affecting what we put in the
> repository
> and what we link to, we have to make clear the patent policy for
> work done in our working groups. I think we can also agree to an
> open source policy at this time to complete the package.

> Since we've had such a healthy lead time on this, I want to propose
> an aggressive schedule for us to get this finalized. Namely, I would
> like to see us reach final agreement by November 12 and have board
> approval. This should be all set before the ebXML meeting starting on
> November 17.

I admire Bob Sutor's optimism.  But if he'd been able to attend last week's
xml.org meeting at Oracle, he'd be less convinced that OASIS is close to an
agreement on intellectual property rights philosophy, let alone be ready to
draft a policy that implements it.  We don't even come close to agreeing
what the SCOPE of our policy is and what RESPONSIBILITY we have for
promoting and enforcing an IPR policy that enables an information society in
which we want to live (maybe we don't even agree on what kind of information
society we want). We have yet to seriously address which of the 10 flavors
of  "open source" licenses might be appropriate. It is worth revisiting
something Terry Allen sent out a few days ago -- a list of areas in which we
need to work that is substantially broader than the one you have here.

That said, I agree with your sense of urgency and will do what I can to get
Commerce One ready to move quickly and intelligently. 

-bob


<terryallen>

At our meeting we barely had time to discover how deeply we
disagree about IPR; some of this disagreement is clearly due
to inadequate grounding of the discussion.  So here's a bit of
grounding.

What do we need IPR for?

 - textual contents of XML.org site
 - software created by XML.org/OASIS aside from DTDs, schemas
 - DTDs, schemas created by XML.org/OASIS
 - contents of repository
 - third-party information, such as user reviews
 - DTDs, schemas created as part of ebXML activity

</terryallen>