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Richard Stallman and the IETF

Apparently the long debate about Microsoft’s license for Sender-ID has attracted the Richard M. Stallman of GNU himself. In a recent message to the MARID list he said:

Microsoft’s Sender-ID license is directly incompatible with free
software regardless of which free software license is used. Free
software means users are free to run it, study and modify the source,
and to redistribute it with or without changes. Free to do so means
there is no requirement to ask or tell anyone that you are doing so.
…
In the absence of resistance, Microsoft has a good
chance of imposing whatever standards it likes. Let us, therefore,
resist it here and now.

(short check of the original header confirms it came from gnu.org).

It is interesting that RMS has not involved himself with standards before, but apparently this is different considering the implications. Personally I don’t think he will have too much effect, but that remain to be seen.

Tags: ietf, ipr, marid, microsoft, open source, patents, senderid —

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