Subject: TLS Authz - Encumbered Standards are Not Standards

From: "P.A.Long" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:40:22 -0500

Dear Folks:

I sincerely hope that U will vote to reject this 'standard.'  Any 
widely-used protocol that is taxed by patent encumbrance leaves the 
entire market at the mercy of the whims of the patent holder.  When an 
investment is made in a technology, a strong argument can be made for 
breathing room for the implementer to be able to build a market (or 
market share), but assessing a toll at the end of the standard 
development process is parasitic.  In the end, crippled standards like 
this will lead to the fragmentation of the Internet.

Of course, this whole issue can be resolved by RedPhone Security; they 
need only to offer a free license to all users of TLS-authz with the 
right to freely sublicense.  Needless to say, this would be a 
public-relations coup for them, and I think they should be encouraged to 
do so.  In the meantime, this 'standard' should be rejected for the 
piracy that it is.

Please, let's keep standards open!

   Thx, Phil Long