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Re: Requests for password to the protected site.




Geoff and Jonathan:

Many thanks for the email.

I just wanted to point out the obvious.  This policy prohibits access to 
the very folks who need access: the R&D teams across the world who are busy 
building 10 GbE product.

It might be time to the IEEE to rethink the IP philosophy behind the 
copyright. The spec only has value if it is accessible to those who need to 
implement it today and over the next year.  I am guess that the IP lawyers 
have probably recommended this very policy in order to prevent the content 
of the draft entering the public domain.

By restricting access the IEEE might be honoring the letter of their 
interpretation of the copyright law, but they are definitely lowering the 
value of the draft spec. The spec only has value if it is implemented so by 
hindering implementation this policy lessens its value.

This policy not only hinders the development of products based on the spec 
but it also puts many of us in the VERY awkward position of having to 
resist somewhat legitimate requests to violate the the policy.

Thanks for listening

Bruce Tolley
Enterprise Line of Business
Cisco Systems


Bruce

Bruce Tolley


At 12:43 PM 10/28/00 -0700, Jonathan Thatcher wrote:

>I have recently received a significant number of requests for the password
>to the protected site. I have checked each person requesting this
>information against the membership list of 802.3 and the attendees of
>802.3ae. For those that were in these lists, I have forwarded the password.
>For those that were not, I have explained that the IEEE copyright
>policy/terms limit distribution to those who are attending the meetings.
>
>Because the burden of doing this is getting to be "a bit much." I will be
>forwarding a note to all 802.3 members and all who have been attending
>meetings informing them of the password.
>
>We invite all to come to the meetings and participate in the process (and
>thereby receive the password). Information on our next meeting can be found
>at:
>http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/3/plenary.html
>
>Information on future meetings can be found in the minutes from the meeting.
>See:
>http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/3/ae/public/sep00/minutes_0900.pdf
>
>Thank you for understanding,
>
>jonathan
>
>Jonathan Thatcher, Principal Engineer
>Chair, IEEE P802.3ae (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
>World Wide Packets
>115 North Sullivan Rd
>PO Box 950
>Veradale WA  99037
>509-242-9228; Fax 509-242-9001;
>jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx