begin quoting Lan Barnes as of Mon, Apr 02, 2007 at 10:16:58AM -0700: > A generally accepted standards document. Here's how it works: > > I figure out a pretty good way to do something in computing. Maybe it's an > email protocol, maybe it's a network file system, maybe it's TCP/IP. I > write it up and publish it, asking for feedback -- a "Request For Comment" > or RFC. Someone, I'm not sure who (IEEE?) assigns it a number. We wait a
IETF? > period of time. People comment. Some of the comments may be useful. I then > program it and release it. I thought RFCs came *after* the code, in practice. > People adopt it, but only if it's useful. When they want to write programs ...or they use the fact that it's an RFC to cram it down the throats of others. After all, if there's an RFC, it's a "standard", and they wouldn't have a standard unless it was a good idea, right? > or libraries that interface with my protocol, they know where to go to > find out exactly how -- to the RFC. If I think of an improvement, I can > rev it. It becomes a standard by convention and because of its usefulness > - a tech meritocracy of ideas. There are some great ones in there, too, like RFC4824. > Now a Big Soulless Corporation comes along that wants to own everything. > It takes my protocol and adds features just to add features. It doesn't > bother to ask anybody. It copyrights or even better, patents these > additions. They don't even have to be particularly useful as long as they > make the BSC's rendition of my protocol incompatable with what everyone > else is doing. Like IE as a browser or HTML in email. Interoperability is at odds with market dominance. > If the BSC can get enough people to buy into their extension like mindless > sheep, then they can drive competitors out of business. They become the > "de facto standard." We all end up paying for what used to be free. Don't forget that the BSC can provide their extension "for free" with their existing product, and third-party replacement extensions can be tagged with "nonstandard" and "non-free(-as-in-beer)" and thus crushed. > Pretty cool, huh? You let other people do the _real_ innovation and then > you "fence off the commons" and claim it as your own. Mucho dinero para > nada. > > Is this a great country or what! Heh. -- Some folks are fencing off the commons, other folks are doing the opposite. Stewart Stremler -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
