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From: Stef@ICS.UCI.EDU (Einar Stefferud)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.dev-environ
Subject: Re: SUMMARY: Ownership of ISODE Code
Message-ID: <6729.677705860@nma.com>
Date: 23 Jun 91 18:37:40 GMT
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As the designated ISODE Steering Group contact person for ISODE
Consortium Founding Activities, I must say that the "ownership" issue
will most certainly be placed on the issue list for the consortium to
deal with, after the Consortium is founded.  This is true with. or
without any additional pressure from any one, since it is a natural
consequence of the Consortium assuming any fiduciary responsibililty
for the source code.

In the meantime, the code is held by the original contributors, and
the statement on rights to use ISODE and the constraint that any user
of ISODE agrees to hold the contributors harmless is clear enough to
serve the ISODE community needs until some action may be taken by the
ISODE Consortium.

Until the ISODE Consortium is formed, the ISODE community will just
have to make-do with what is now in the documentation.  Many people
and companies have examined it closely and have decided that it is OK
to use the source code under the terms stated in the documentation.

There is no mechanism available to do anything more at this time.

Comments are welcome, but please understand that without a funded and
operational ISODE Consortium, no other action can be taken on this
matter.

On the topic of founding the ISODE Consortium, work is progressing
with an initial set of interested parties who are in the process of
pledging to found an open international paid membership consortium to
look after the needs and wants of the ISODE Community.

No specific policies have been set at this point, beyond a firm
commitment to keep ISODE in its current "openly available"
distribution mode and accept new contributions of code, with support
to be given to filling in gaps and improving conformance, and to
generally making ISODE into a proper reference implementation for
those who want such a thing.

Beyond this, it is premature to announce anything that might pre-empt
the Consortium making its own decisions when it becomes operational.

If you have ideas about what you want the ISODE Consortium to do for
you, or for the ISODE community, or for the industry, please send them
along to me <stef@ics.uci.edu>.  I will collect them and organize them
for contribution to the ISODE formation process.

Of course, I will also be interested in hearing what you will do to
support the consortium in doing what you want it to do for you.

If you want to participate in the formation process, please let me
know, and I will add you to the list of founding participants.

Best Regards...\Stef