Subject: Patent-encumbered standards are not a good idea

From: Jose Lorenzo <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:02:06 -0500

[I apologize if this email is received multiple times. Sending twice from my
yahoo.com email account failed to lead to the confirmation reply from your
servers. I am using a new source this time.]

I want to register opposition to the proposed patent-encumbered standard for
TLS authorization.

Supporting patent encumbered standards makes absolutely zero sense. The
support such a standard would get would probably be because of ignorance.

Please take a look at
http://boycottnovell.com/2009/02/04/the-api-trap-part-1/ . That discussion
(in progress) may not surprise the IETF, but ask how anyone could support
that sort of nonsense as an open source software developer?

Open source software has been and will continue to be an important part of
the Internet. Standards that aren't compatible with the most popular open
source licenses (eg, the GPL) are an insult to the many hard-working open
source developers world-wide.

Again, since it's very possible (and sometimes ridiculously easy) to
circumvent many types of patents, but only if one designs for this from the
beginning and doesn't allow themselves to be taken for a ride, I can't
imagine the FOSS community or many others supporting a patent encumbered
standard except out of ignorance. Why run a race you can't win, when there
are so many other interesting races to be run?

Jose Lorenzo
Miami, FL USA

PS: I have read many "RFCs" thoroughly (including TLS 1.0) going back over a
decade. RFCs are wonderful documentation. I should take this opportunity to
express my sincere thanks for all past work. It's borderline depressing to
think this resource would open up to contamination. [Almost by definition,
patents applicable to IETF standards would consist mainly of so-called
"software patents", a disgraceful component of the patent system.]