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Re: Requests for password to the protected site.




Many thanks Howard. I strongly agree.

Howard Frazier wrote:

> I think that the policy of limiting access to the drafts to the 802.3 membership
> list or the 802.3ae attendance list is unnecessarily and improperly restrictive.
>
> The copyright information on the front of the draft says:
>
>     Permission is hereby granted for IEEE Standards Committee participants
>     to reproduce this document for purposes of IEEE standardization activities.
>
> During 802.3z, I interpretted this to mean that any one who was participating
> in the work of the 802.3z Task Force was allowed access to the draft. Since
> many people participate solely via email, I considered all members of the
> stds-802-3-hssg reflector to be eligible for access.
>
> Standards benefit from broad review.  Some very useful comments were submitted
> during 802.3z from people who never attended a meeting. I strongly encourage
> the leadership of 802.3ae and 802.3 to reconsider the draft access policy, in
> favor of a more open policy.
>
> Howard Frazier
> DomiNet Systems, Inc.
>
> Bruce Tolley wrote:
> >
> > 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

--

Dr. Gary A. Nelson
Zynrgy Group Inc
20708 Deerpath Road
Barrington, IL 60010-3787
USA
+1.847.304.0000
+1.847.304.1929 fax
gnelson@xxxxxxxxxx