New requirements on Individual Members

[Steve Hanna <shanna@funk.com>]

OASIS PKI TC members,

I hate to intrude on our PKI-related activities
for a more procedural item, but I want to point
something out and suggest you take action.

I suspect you may not be aware of the major changes
in requirements for Individual Members included in
OASIS' recent proposed IPR Policy. Individual Membership
would no longer be available to anyone whose IP
(Intellectual Property) is owned by his or her employer
(as required by most employment agreements).
Please review my comments below on this.

The proposed IPR Policy is currently in a member
comment period. Whatever your opinions on this topic,
I encourage you to review the IPR Policy and submit
comments to ipr-member-review@lists.oasis-open.org
before the end of the comment period (September 10)
on this or any other aspect of the proposed IPR Policy.
Your comments will be carefully considered by the
OASIS Board of Directors, which will decide what
IPR Policy should be adopted.

For your reference, the draft IPR Policy is at
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/members-only/download.php/7515
and the FAQ is at
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/members-only/download.php/7554

Thanks,

Steve

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: New requirements on Individual Members
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2004 11:37:14 -0400
From: Steve Hanna <shanna@funk.com>
To: ipr-member-review@lists.oasis-open.org

The new proposed IPR Policy includes a most
unwelcome and unfortunate change. Here's the text
in the FAQ that describes it:

3.6. Are there changes to the eligibility rules
      for Individual members?

      Yes. If an individual’s IP is owned by his or her
      employer, (as is required by most employment agreements),
      he or she will be unable to continue to participate under
      the OASIS Individual Membership level.

In my view, this change would be an awful mistake.
Here are three reasons why:

1) Individual Members are among the most enthusiastic
    and energetic members of my TC and many others.

2) For many organizations, Individual Membership is
    a path to Organizational Membership. They start
    by having one Individual Member. Then several
    more join and their management sees that OASIS
    is important to their business.

3) Making this change would make OASIS less open,
    ensuring that only organizations or unemployed
    individuals can participate.

The FAQ states that this change is being made "to
ensure that Contributions have clear licensing
obligations and that licenses are available to
implement all OASIS Standards and specifications."

I support this goal but I think it could better
be achieved by requiring Individual Members whose
IP is owned by their employers to have those
employers sign documents agreeing to the
necessary obligations.

Thanks,

Steve Hanna
Co-chair, OASIS PKI TC