Subject: Comment to draft-housley-tls-authz-extns

From: Martin Zoller <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:21:51 +0200

Dear IETF,
I would like to express my concern about the proposed standard 
"draft-housley-tls-authz-extns" for which the IESG has recently issued 
another Last Call.
In IPR disclosure 1026, RedPhone Security asserts that receiving or 
sending authorizations as defined by the proposed standard is not 
covered by their pending patents, and is therefore possible without a 
license. Still, a full implementation of the standard would require a 
license because some of the techniques for generating and processing 
authorizations are covered by the patents. RedPhone Security states that 
licenses will be granted in a fair manner, but it does not guarantee 
that anyone wishing to implement or use the standard will receive a 
royalty-free license. In my opinion, this is a prerequisite for 
declaring something a web standard, because otherwise the standard 
cannot be implemented in free software.
Standards should be adopted by as many users as possible, and it is 
better not to set a standard for something than to declare a 
patent-encumbered technology a standard. Therefore I hope that you will 
continue working on the draft and make sure that the next proposal is 
not affected by any known patents.

Best regards,
Martin Zoller

--
Martin Zoller
Schuetzenstrasse 33
CH-3097 Liebefeld
Switzerland