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[Fwd: [Fwd: SUO: Free, Open Source, Copyright, etc.]]

Jim,
If I interpret your note correctly the SUMO is not public domain.  This
means it is not freely usable by anyone for any reason.

Bob

NOTE: Having had some experience with these issues at a very large
corporation with more patents than any other company, unless you have
well drafted signed IP releases from ALL contributors the copyright
means very little.  Does the IEEE stand behind its copyright (i.e. will
it defend the copyright in litigation at its own expense)?  Things that
do not produce significant revenue don't occasion much dispute, but if
it were incorporated into a significant product (say a commercially
successful DBMS)  people will crawl out of the woodwork to claim a share
of a multi-billion dollar revenue stream.  Even small companies (or at
least their investors) are aware of this.  For most companies the
choices are ironclad copyright/patent or unambiguous public domain.

Just claiming one's product "conforms" to some high level description is
different than incorporating actual code.  If the product doesn't
actually "conform" there might be a marketing blitz (by competitors) to
point this out.  Using code  without having clear rights to it is very
risky and the larger the revenue the higher the risk.  It is usually
less risky (and sometimes less expensive) to create similar function in
a way that doesn't infringe copyright/patents.  Unfortunately  any real
(de facto) standard is lost



Bob,

BS: "Public domain" is a fairly well understood term......

Jim S:        SUO will be free to download and use in products, but the
copyright will be owned by IEEE and not public domain.  If in the public
domain, a powerful company could change it and try to establish a
different standard. 

BS: > Are there any restrictions Teknowledge has placed on the IP for 
> SUMO.

Jim S: No. Teknowledge signed the basic copyright release letter.  IEEE
(the SUO WG) now has rights to modify and distribute this document.  

BS:  Is it really "public domain"?

Jim S: As describe above, IEEE owns the copyright, but agreed to allow
the SUO WG to post SUO (in draft and final) for free downloading.

> 
> As of today, may anyone download it and incorporate it into their
> product, make tools that are based on it, use it commercially now 
> and at
> any later date without charge?

Jim S: Yes, that was the intent and is the case.  Of course, until SUO is
an approved IEEE document vendors can't claim conformance and utilize the
content at their own risk.

> 
> There two separate questions - one related to Teknowledge's IP (and
> anyone who also contributed to it) and one related to the IEEE's
> copyright.

Jim S: The standard IEEE copyright release letter gives IEEE rights to
change and distribute a document, but does not transfer exclusive rights
from the submitter to IEEE.  The submitter may still take the originally
submitted document and change and distribute it.  However, any
contributions and changes made after the original submission are the
property of IEEE.   

Please send any further questions.  

Jim Schoening
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