I request that you review the attached document and
email us your comments to:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This is what I consider a reasonably complete
version of the policies and procedures which
is likely to bring a lot of good in the area of
Internet protocol development.
If the Free Protocols Foundation policies become
better understood and known, then traps such
as WAP have less of a chance to be
successful.
Those of you interested in pursuing this concept
further are invited to participate in the mailing
lists set up at FPF web site at
http://www.freeprotocols.org/ or to send your
subscription request to
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thank you in advance for reviewing this
document and for your comments, suggestions
and ideas.
...Mohsen.
The Free Protocols Foundation
Policies and Procedures
www.FreeProtocols.org
Version 0.7
May 10, 2000
Copyright 2000 Free Protocols Foundation.
Published by:
Free Protocols Foundation
17005 SE 31st Place
Bellevue, WA 98008 USA
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim
copies of this document provided the copyright notice and
this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 The Free Protocols Foundation Mission
1.2 The Patent Debate
1.3 How Patents Affect Protocols
1.4 Difficulties Relating to Software and Protocol Patents
1.5 Terminology
1.5.1 Definitions
1.6 About the Free Protocol Policies and Procedures
1.7 About this Document
2 The Protocol Development Process
2.1 Phases of Development
2.1.1 Initial Protocol Development
2.1.2 Global Parameter Assignment
2.1.3 Protocol Publication
2.1.4 Patent-Free Declarations
2.1.5 Industry Usage
2.1.6 Maintenance and Enhancement
2.1.7 Endorsement by a Standards Body
2.2 Role of the Free Protocols Foundation
2.3 Comparison to Standards Organization Processes
2.3.1 Centralisation vs. Decentralization
of Responsibility
2.3.2 Coordination of Activities
2.3.3 Selective vs. Egalitarian Patent-Freedom
3 The Free Protocols Foundation
3.1 General Philosophy
3.2 Purpose, Activities and Scope
3.3 Other Activities
4 Free Protocol Development Working Groups
5 Patent-Free Declarations
5.1 Author's Declaration
5.2 Working Group Declaration
6 Patents, Copyright and Confidentiality - Policy Statement
6.1 Policy Statement Principles
6.2 General Policy
6.3 Confidentiality Obligations
6.4 Rights and Permissions of All Contributions
6.5 FPF Role Regarding Free Protocol Specifications
1 Introduction
1.1 The Free Protocols Foundation Mission
---
Software patents pose a significant danger to
protocols. In some cases patents become included in
protocols by accident -- that is, without deliberate
intentionality on the part of the protocol developer.
In other cases, however, an unscrupulous company or
organization may deliberately introduce patented
components into a protocol, in an attempt to gain
market advantage via ownership of the protocol.
In either case, the protocol can then be held hostage
by the patent-holder, to the enormous detriment of
anyone else who may wish to use it. The inclusion of
software-related patents in protocols is extremely
damaging to the software industry in general, and to
the consumer.
The mission of the Free Protocols Foundation is to
prevent this from happening. We have defined a set of
processes which a protocol developer can use to work
towards a patent-free result, and we provide a public
forum in which the developer can declare that the
protocol conforms to these processes. As described
below, it is not possible to provide an absolute
guarantee that any particular protocol is truly
patent-free. However, the Free Protocols Foundation
processes allow a developer to provide some public
assurance that reasonable, good-faith measures have
been taken to create a patent-free protocol.
In some cases, standards organizations, such as the
IESG, make use of their own processes for developing
patent-free protocols. However, these processes are
available only for the organization's own internal use.
The Free Protocols Foundation makes the same general
processes available to any protocol developer. Its
processes allow any company, organization or individual
to develop patent-free protocols, without requiring the
developer to be part of a formal standards
organization.
At the Free Protocols Foundation we strenuously oppose
the creation and promotion of patented protocols. By
providing clear mechanisms and assurances of
patent-freedom, our goal is to make it abundantly clear
to the industry at large whether a particular protocol
is, or is not, patent-free.
1.2 The Patent Debate
