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Subject: Re: [rights] TIME OUT, PLEASE
Karl, The Samuelson Clinic responded to the RLTC's call for rights language requirements because we understood that rights languages will play a central role in the behavior of DRM systems. Our participation has been consistent with the Charter's direction "to address the needs of the diverse communities that have recognized the need for a rights language." As our initial requirements submission, our parsed and categorized requirements, and our participation in the RLTC have shown, we feel that XrML falls short of supplying the public with the means to protect its rights and expectations under copyright law. We have therefore viewed our participation in the RLTC as an opportunity to incorporate these rights and expectations explicitly and saliently into a REL. The REL has benefited from the hours that the TC and particularly the Requirements SC have devoted to reviewing and explaining these requirements. There were some large differences of opinion and perspective, but we were making progress in understanding each other. Perhaps our requirements have injected more diversity into the RLTC than the framers of the Charter anticipated. It is nevertheless regrettable that Karl Best has suggested that SC members who have in good faith sought to review, question, and revise the contours of a developing REL should resign from the SC. This proposal is even more puzzling in light of the lively discussion at the F2F meeting, which resulted in an amendment to the Charter. It is also regrettable that the RLTC has elected to set aside our requirements. Even those requirements that were discussed at length and resolved within the SC were expunged from the requirements document. Although Karl's suggested approach might lend the appearance of a stable set of requirements and expedite the delivery of "consensus" requirements, it buries a larger problem and dismisses the time and effort of a community newly engaged in this process. The expectations of many of the people who will be affected by XrML or the OASIS REL are unlikely to change, and copyright law is not going away. A rights language, and the systems that implement that language, will have to confront these facts sooner or later. They will only be able to do so if they have been constructed upon a framework that is robust enough to meet the needs of all users. Dean Rowan Aaron Burstein Deirdre Mulligan ----------------- Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic
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