Can you give some specific examples of how changing the Forum’s Bylaws or 
putting up a new Forum website or wiki would raise IP issues, and require a 
Review Period by all Participants, etc.  These do not affect Guidelines, which 
is the only way that IP issues arise in the Forum.

Can you provide one concrete example to help everyone understand what your 
concern is?  Maybe I will change my mind and come over to your position if you 
can provide examples.  Has Google itself done an assessment when it comes to 
Bylaws changes and the website and wiki and the IP problems that will result?  
If so, can you share?

From: Ryan Sleevi [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 1:23 PM
To: Kirk Hall <[email protected]>
Cc: CABFPub <[email protected]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Re: [cabfpub] Draft Bylaws 5.6 - Subcommittees of the 
CA/Browser Forum

On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 1:12 AM Kirk Hall 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I think you are mistaken in your first point – there were several people who 
spoke in favor of keeping governance change issues at the Forum level in some 
way (e.g. an informal group Forum members working together, or a “Committee of 
the Whole” of the Forum working on these issues at the Forum level – like we 
did this morning.  So there are multiple opinions on the best way to move 
forward.

I don’t understand your second question at all – what do you mean by 
“assessment” and “implications”?  It seems my draft language addresses your 
concern that this subcommittee could create IP and/or become implicated with 
the IPR Agreement – it can’t and it won’t.  As you know, when we have changed 
Bylaws in the past and updated our website and wiki, there have never been IP 
issues and never a need for IPR Agreement review.  Can you clarify with your 
own assessments and implications from simply allowing Subcommittees that don’t 
work on Guidelines?

Thank you for confirming that Entrust Datacard has not evaluated or otherwise 
assessed your claim that there are no IP issues. I think it may have been 
clearer to simply state that, rather than to attempt to deflect it with a 
question.

As you know, and as has been discussed, one of the ways to reduce the risk of 
potential IP issues is to limit the scope of broad Forum level discussions to 
as minimal amount as needed to function. Indeed, an ideal result for the Forum 
activities at large - to ensure there's limited risk - is that the only Forum 
activities are to vote. That is, to even limit the discussions involved as much 
as possible. Your path creates a significant risk for broader, Forum level 
discussions and brainstorming that can easily lead to members introducing new 
risks, just as members have introduced proposals that raise concerns about the 
Antitrust Statement.

I can understand that some members have faith that these issues are purely 
hypothetical. Another name for pure hypotheticals is risk, and risks can be 
mitigated. It may be that you disagree on the degree of risk. That's perhaps 
not surprising, as your reply makes it clear you've not yet assessed that risk. 
Other solutions were offered that would minimize risk. If you don't believe 
there's risk, there's no harm. If you do believe there's risk, this can 
address. It seems like there are solutions that are win/win for everyone, and 
it does not seem like this is one. But then again, that may only be obvious 
once you take time to assess the risk.
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