[whatwg] Copyright of specifications

[Jim Ley]

On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:51:25 +0000 (UTC), Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
> The specs have now all been updated so they have an explicit license grant
> that says "You are granted a license to use, reproduce and create
> derivative works of this document.".

Right, could you explain why you were not able to get it assigned to
the public domain? [1]  The fact Opera lawyers have chosen to withold
ownership against your own wishes makes me even more suspect that I
was before about the ownership of the WHATWG specification - it
clearly is now considered by Opera to be Opera's specification.   Of
course if there was some reason why the lawyers said assignment to the
public domain was impossible, then I'm sure I'd review my position if
it was explained to me.

I also do not think the rather simple statement is sufficient licence
for me to accept, Opera could revoke the licence at any time.  I'm
surprised even you thought it really a good substitute for the public
domain you actually wanted.

On a related note the patent policy still hasn't be clarified, did
Opera's lawyers not come back to you on that at the same time?  I
would've at the very least expect the WG members themselves to have
had the time to state that they had no patents...

Jim.

[1] http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2004-June/000228.html