Subject: Re: Call for volunteers to discuss IETF patent policy with Richard Stallman

From: Richard M Stallman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:29:45 -0500

> The issue here concerns patents and only patents.  
    Patents are a part of the Intellectual Property Framework that enables 
    the Trade Agreements between the populace of this planet

We will do a better job designing trade agreements in the future if we
avoid the rubric of "intellectual property" in deciding what they
should say.

    "Excuse the patent"?  Ahahahahah - see what I mean. This isnt about 
    being open

Of course not.  I stand for freedom, not openness.  Articles about my
work often describe it in a misleading way which suggests I consider
it "open" or want it to be "open".  I regret if they misinformed you
about this.

	       its a lobbyist effort to kill off patents by excluding 
    patented IP from the IETF standards process.

I think you are talking about software methods and features.  To avoid
gratuitous vagueness it is better not to refer to them as "IP".

Software patents restrict the implementation and use of computational
methods and features.  They threaten the freedom of every programmer
and every computer user, so they should not exist.  But that is not
under the IETF's control.  What IS under its control is whether
to establish as standard a method or feature that people generally
are not allowed to implement.

Meanwhile, I should clarify my previous statement

    > A patented standard for software is worse than no standard, because it
    > functions to augment the patent holder's stranglehold over society.

by saying that I am talking standards whose use is actually restricted
by patents; that is, patents which do not come with suitable
royalty-free licenses.  I apologize for the imprecision.