Please go and review the newly proposed IPR Policy and the accompanying lightweight process for developing OpenID specs. These are critical to bringing in the broadest possible group of participants to the OpenID community. I invite interested parties to participate through the legal@openid.net list or through editing the wiki (login is currently broken, fix requested). In participating in this IPR discussion, there's no commitment or representation that you are supporting or even interested in openid - I just want to make sure the broadest set of interests are considered.
We'd like to have this all hammered out by IIW 2007 on May 14-17.
Quoting from my process proposal:
There are the (conflicting) goals of an OpenID IPR policy:
- Produce specifications which are free from patent and copyright encumbrances.
- Minimize process imposed on participants, i.e., keep as “lightweight” as possible, especially in terms of executing licenses
- Facilitate free-wheeling, open-ended discussion in the current modes (a small handful of email lists consisting primarily of individuals who detest process and who have no IPR to protect).
- Maximize participation from IPR holders who would like to contribute IPR.
- Make contribution "safe" in terms of being well-scoped and well-defined.
- Maximize clarity on the IPR encumbrances around specs produced by the community for the purposes of 3rd parties who may want to adopt the specifications
Taking the proposed Formal IPR Policy as a base, this page proposes a layer of process that should be a workable solution to meeting these goals. Though not perfect, like most open source the intent is to be "good enough".
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