Re: [oiic-formation-discuss] IRC Channel created and registered

[marbux <marbux@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 2:39 PM, Craig A. Eddy <tyche@cox.net> wrote:
> Internet Relay Chat quick guide:

I really object strongly to an IRC chat for this effort. All
negotiations of a Charter's language are supposed to take place on the
designated record. The are really quite serious antitrust issues when
competitors work out deals outside the forum designated by the TC
formation notice. E.g., D.G. Competition Commisoner Neelie Kroes
statement:

> "... standardisation agreements should be based on the merits of the
> technologies involved. Allowing companies to sit around a table and
> agree technical developments for their industry is not something that
> the competition rules would usually allow. So when it is allowed we
> have to look carefully at how it is done."
 <http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/317&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en>.

The law is the same in the U.S. The competition regulators can't "look
carefully at how it is done" on IRC unless everything said on IRC is
made a part of the record created on this mailing list. This list is
the officially designated place for the negotiations. Moving the
negotiation off this list would legally require that a new TC
formation notice be issued that designates the IRC channel as a
supplemental record of the negotation and that everything said on the
IRC channel be a public record that is maintained.

If folks reach agreements outside this list, then the antitrust
prohibition against block voting comes into play. This isn't to say
folks can't talk things over among themselves, but all negotiation has
to take place on the officially-designed record. In other words, no
agreements among participants can be made outside this list. That
doesn't leave much legal purpose for an IRC channel.



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Universal Interoperability Council
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