[CWG-Stewardship] Proposed Principal Terms of IANA Intellectual Property Agreements

[Mueller, Milton L]

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> In the General Comments bit, there's an overarching comment that includes
> this: "the participants also may need to consider amendments to the IETF
> Trust documents …".
> 
> I understand uneasiness in CWG about this issue, but I want to be crystal
> clear: modifying the Trust Agreement _at all_ for the purposes of this effort
> is simply not on.  It involves an enormous amount of process in the IETF, and
> we actually don't have time now to complete such changes even if I thought
> that it would be practically possible to make such changes to the IETF Trust.
> I've tried to be open about this all along, so I hope it comes as no surprise.

Having been part of this process from the beginning, I can vouch for the fact that this point was made repeatedly during our discussions of the IANA domain and IPR. I was firmly of the impression that the group that worked on this had concluded that the benefits of relying on the IETF Trust outweighed any benefits that might come from a hypothetical need to modify the Trust Agreement. I thought we had made this choice long ago. Surprised that it is coming up again. 

> If people conclude that it is necessary to modify the Trust Agreement to
> satisfy the concerns of the CWG, then the IETF Trust is not a candidate at all
> for this role.  I hope we all realise that this means we'd need a new trust to
> be established.  While I think creating such a trust is about an afternoon of
> work for any lawyer competent in this area of the law, in my opinion the
> organizational details that we'd have to work out in such a case are
> altogether unlikely to happen in time for this all to be completed by
> September.

Completely agree, this is one of the main reasons why we chose to go with the IETF Trust. 

--MM