Bug #110635 for URI: Fwd: Questions concerning the IETF Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax standard

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Bjorn Lundell <bjorn.lundell@his.se> Date: Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 1:57 PM Subject: Questions concerning the IETF Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax standard To: ether@cpan.org Hi Karen, I am a researcher from the University of Skövde, Sweden and currently involved in analysis of standards and their implementation in software, with a specific focus on licensing conditions for standards and software projects. I am currently investigating conditions for use and implementation of technical specifications of a set of specific standards (please see below for references to the specific standards) in software provided under proprietary licenses, as well as free and open source software (FOSS) licenses. For the purpose of this survey, we will use FOSS when referring to software provided under a software licensed recognised by one (or both) of the two organisations: Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative (i.e. a license recognised by one or both of http://www.fsf.org/licensing/ and http://opensource.org/licenses). Specifically we are interested in your experiences of challenges related to implementation of standards in free and open source software, and in particular the specific experiences you and your project have gained over the years. In my role as researcher at the University of Skövde I have provided input to several national studies advising European and Swedish policy in the area, and this request for information is part of an investigation aimed to provide recommendations concerning use of standards in the Swedish context. I am also a member of the Swedish national IT-standardisation advisory council established by the Swedish Government, which provides input to Swedish national strategies and policy. From information provided by IETF I also understand that there may be patent declarations for specific standards that have (or have not) been submitted to the IETF and that there may also be other patents (that have not been submitted to IETF) which may impact on the conditions for use of the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax". To this end, I have also understood that implementation of specific standards may involve legal and licensing challenges for FOSS projects. At this point, I have some specific questions concerning your experiences related to implementation of standards in your FOSS project. Therefore, I hope you would be able to share some of these experiences by providing responses to the specific questions (please see below). Many thanks in advance for sharing your experiences related to the specific questions (please see below). Kind regards, --Björn Associate Professor Björn Lundell, Ph.D. Software Systems Research Group University of Skövde P.O. Box 408 SE-541 28 SKOVDE Sweden E-mail: bjorn.lundell@his.se My questions concern the following technical specification of the IETF standard: IETF, Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax, August 1998, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2396 From the information provided in the IETF patent database and elsewhere I understand that several organisations may control patents which potentially impact on conditions for implementation of the technical specification(s) in software, in particular when implemented in a FOSS project. From the information provided by IETF (27 April 2015) concerning patent declarations I have analysed the content of these web pages: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2396 http://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/search/?draft=&rfc=2396&submit=rfc&holder=&patent=&group=&doctitle=&iprtitle= From an analysis of patent declarations that have been submitted to IETF and provided on the IETF web site, I have not identified any patent declarations related to the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax". In addition, I understand from the information provided by IETF that this information is made available for information purposes only. Hence, I understand that the information may be incomplete (e.g. some relevant patents impacting on the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax" may be missing) and the information may also be incorrect (e.g. some patents may have expired, some patents may now be valid but controlled by another organisation, etc.). My questions concern specific patents (and other IP) which impact on the implementation of the technical specification(s) of the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax" in software in your (and other) FOSS projects. Further, in case you are aware of patents (and other IP) that other organisations control I would be very grateful for any additional information (or references to other sources) which may aid to bring clarity to the conditions for implementation of the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax" in software in general, and in a FOSS project in particular. For all questions below, please note that "royalty-free conditions" refers to conditions in which"patents possibly present - of (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis". Question 1: In case your FOSS project (and the organisation related to your project) has previously agreed (related to the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax" specific licensing conditions (including non-asserts) for use of patents (and other IP) which other organisations have control over would it be possible to gain access to the name of (and contact information to) the organisations you have agreed such agreements with? Question 2: Are you (or other individuals representing your FOSS project) aware of any other FOSS projects that have implemented patents (and other IP) that organisations have control over (related to the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax")? If so, which are these FOSS projects? Question 3: In case your FOSS project (and the organisation related to your project) has previously agreed (related to the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax") specific licensing conditions (including non-asserts) (or benefits from an existing arrangement) for use of patents (and other IP) which the project and organisation (or projects and organisations) you represent has implemented in your FOSS project would it be possible for you to mention with which organisations your project has reached (or benefited from) agreements? If you, for confidentiality reasons, do not want to name specific organisations, can you please perhaps indicate if you have reached agreements with one (or several) organisation(s) related to the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax"? Question 4: Are you (or other individuals representing your FOSS project) aware of any FOSS project that for legal reasons has tried to (and for legal reasons decided not to) implement one (or several) of patents (and other IP) that organisations have control over? If so, which are these FOSS projects? In case you do not want to disclose the name of specific projects, what are the main legal reasons for why the project(s) you are aware of has decided not to implement the the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax"? Question 5: Are you (or other individuals representing your FOSS project) aware of any FOSS project that has implemented patents (and other IP) that organisations have control over (related to the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax") and later been approached by these (or other) organisations with claims concerning violation of rights related to patents (and other IP rights) caused by (or claimed to be caused by) implementation of the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax" in the FOSS project? If so, what type of requests have your (and other) project(s) received? In case you do not want to disclose specific FOSS projects, what are the main legal reasons for why the project(s) you are aware of have received such requests after having implemented the IETF standard "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax"? And which organisations have approached your project(s) with such requests? In case you do not want to disclose specific organisations, could you characterise whether the organisations in question are non-practising entities (trolls) or not?