OpenID 2.0 finalization progress

Kevin Turner kevin at janrain.com
Mon Oct 22 20:34:07 UTC 2007


On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 16:12 -0700, Johannes Ernst wrote:
> [...] and after they had produced a spec, Rambus said "but we have
> some patents". This lead to at least one lawsuit I believe.
> 
> I have heard wildly diverging assessments on whether or not this  
> could happen here.

Ok, I'm looking for the devil's advocate here, so let's assume the
worst.  Say we call the spec final now, and then sometime in the next
forty days, a problem like that comes up.  What are the consequences of
that?  Specifically, do any of the solutions to that hypothetical
problem involve changing the spec?  In what way?

The way I understand it, right now one of two things happens:

1) Things go more-or-less smoothly now.  The IPR policy may get tinkered
with a little bit during the review period but this does not influence
the technical specification.

2) The sky falls and we decide that there is no IPR policy that can
possibly cover the current specification, so we must change the
specification.  Given our track record at publishing new drafts, this
means that we wouldn't be final until _at least_ Q1 2008, if not Q2.

...

It is Very Bad if I believe #2 is probable.  Thus I would prefer to
believe it is _not_ possible, leaving me with only #1.  And #1 has no
negative consequences to calling the spec final _now_.

Am I mischaracterizing the situation here?






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