Subject: Please say No to draft-housley-tls-authz-extns

From: Shai Berger <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:57:50 +0200

Dear IETF,

Moved by the FSF's public call, I have read the Fourth Last Call on 
draft-housley-tls-authz-extns at 
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf-announce/current/msg05617.html, and 
the associated IPR disclosure 1026. As far as I understand those documents, 
their meaning is that while the standard per se can be implemented without 
licensing RedPhone Security's patent, such implementations will actually not 
be interoperable with implementations using patented techniques and formats.

In addition, RedPhone's pledge to grant licenses in a 'fair and 
nondiscriminatory manner' all but makes it certain that some implementors 
will be forced to due without such licenses, as what is usually 
considered 'fair' in patent licensing, can be, and usually is, incompatible 
with Free Software. 

Accepting the standard will serve only to drive wedges in the  Internet, the 
opposite of the purpose of any standard. It will attempt to marginalize Free 
Software, which can probably only marginalize the standard itself, or, even, 
the standards body.

Please don't go there. Please don't settle for RAND licensing, and only accept 
Perpetual Royalty-Free licenses for patents required for implementing 
standards.

Sincerely,
	Shai Berger.