Re: SUMO license

[Allan Terry <aterry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title:

The issue under discussion is the current IEEE license in the latest version of SUMO and what people should be allowed to do with SUMO.   Adam pointed out the current license wording might be too restrictive.  I think it could be clearer. 

1) It allows everybody to download and use SUMO, but not to alter it.  "The Chair notes that prior permission from the Manager has already been granted for third parties to download and use (but not alter) the SUMO."  I have the impression that granting outsiders rights to use SUMO while it is still in the standardization process is somewhat unusual.   They allowed one change.  We might ask for other changes, if the group comes up with specific suggestions.

IEEE needs to protect against random people making random changes to SUMO and not making clear what they did.  This could confuse what SUMO is, and IEEE wants to retain control of the draft standard.   One way to deal with that is to spell out what you are allowed to do with your downloaded SUMO.  You can make changes but then what sort of disclosure must you make, and what license do you maintain in your file?  Perhaps a lawyer could craft something along the lines of "This work is derived from SUMO version XX.  No claim is made that this work conforms to any IEEE SUO standard" as the language to include. 
   If people are going to fork off of SUMO, I'd prefer they make clear what version they started from.  Both SUMO and their derivative work will be moving targets

2) There is also the sentence, "Permission is hereby granted for IEEE Standards Committee participants to reproduce this document for purposes of IEEE standardization activities only."  I assume that means if you are on the Committee (presumably this is anybody who is a voting member in SUO), you can modify and experiment with the file.

We want people to make changes, "experiments", and report back what they learn as suggestions for improvement.   I assume the lawyer's "reproduce" means no more than to make a copy--and doesn't say you can't change it, so you can do so.  We can all change SUMO in the lab and that should not be a problem.  If you make changes to a copy of SUMO and use it for other than feeding suggestions back into the group, you are covered under 1) above.

Now if we could only get the lawyers to provide a SUMO and logic version of their license, we might understand it  :-)

Allan Terry

Jim.s3@JUNO.COM wrote:

SUMO,

        Adam and are started a discussion on licensing, which we're bring
into this list.

        Adam, what do you mean by "altering the standard?"  Changing the
starter document?  Changing the browser?  Changing some form of
implementation?  Could you give us some examples?

Jim



--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Adam Pease <adampease@earthlink.net>
To: jim.s3@juno.com,aterry@teknowledge.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:54:20 -0700
Subject: Re: SUMO license

Jim,
   I'm happy to move this discussion to the list.  As you note, anyone
should be able to build a better lightbulb.  No one should be able to
claim
conformance if they alter the standard, but they shouldn't be prevented
from altering the standard and noting that they've done so.

Adam