I've become concerned about the possibility that our open protocols could be polluted by accepting technical contributions (such as mailing list posts or bug reports) from people who might later claim that their contributions are copyrighted or patented.
The IETF avoids this problem through their "note well" statement <http://www.ietf.org/about/note-well.html>, which is presented to all list subscribers, referenced at the beginning of every face-to-face meeting, etc. To protect the XMPP ecosystem, I think we need a similar warning about participation in the XSF's standards process. Therefore, I have done the following: 1. Reformatted the XSF's IPR Policy in XEP format, which I am assuming will be published as XEP-0280: http://xmpp.org/extensions/inbox/copyright.html 2. Clarified the difference between a Contribution (any communication in an XSF venue or to an official XSF representative) and a Submission (ProtoXEP). 3. Clarified the disclosure rules on Submissions. 4. Fixed up some other small matters in the text. 5. Defined a warning that we can provide to mailing list subscribers, in chatroom subjects, on websites, and at face-to-face meetings. The warning I have drafted (and this is only a draft) reads as follows: "This [list|chatroom|website|event] is an official venue of the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) and the XSF considers any statement made in this venue to be a contribution to the XSF standards process. By participating in this venue, you agree that your contributions can be incorporated into XSF specifications and copyrighted by the XSF in accordance with the XSF's Patent and Copyright Policy as defined by XEP-0280." That is short enough to recite at the beginning of an XMPP Summit meeting, include in a chatroom subject (maybe), place in the footer of all XSF mailing list posts, etc. (We might even add another sentence at the end: "If you do not agree with these terms, do not make any contributions in this venue.") Please carefully review http://xmpp.org/extensions/inbox/copyright.html and post to the [email protected] list by March 26, 2010, if you have feedback, questions, or concerns about this matter. After the comment period is ended and feedback has been incorporated, I plan to ask the XSF Board of Directors to approve of publication of this document as the official XSF policy on contributions and submissions to the XSF's standards process. Peter -- Peter Saint-Andre https://stpeter.im/
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