Re: Negotiating for using Royalty Free patents

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Ryan McDougall">

> Then why doesn't the board participate on any of the mailing lists?

Whoa, hold on a second. Various board members are definitely participants on
this and other mailing lists, but almost always with our GNOME contributor
hats on, not our GNOME Foundation hats. Most of the time, you'll *know* when
we put our Foundation hats on because we'll make that very clear.

> This isn't the first time I've asked for the board to use its position.

If, previously, you've asked the board to "use its position" to either make
a technical decision (not our role) or handle some frivolous issue that will
simply be resolved in due time in the development community (not our role,
or worth escalating), then sure, the board members may have blown you off or
not replied.

The right place to invoke the board is foundation-list, anyway.

> I don't know what the bylaws are, since there is no link on the website
> to them.

Now that's just a lack of effort on your part:

  http://foundation.gnome.org/
   -> About the Foundation
   -> GNOME Foundation By-laws (or GNOME Foundation Charter)

> I am sorry that I have sullied the GNOME reputation. I won't get involved
> in foundation policy any more. I have retracted my letter to the IP intern
> at Apple. Consider the thread dead, lets go back to the head-in-sand
> technique of patent management.

It's nothing to do with having our heads in the sand. It's a relationship
management issue at the Foundation level, and an understanding of the
commercial realities we face between GNOME as a Free Software project and
Apple as a patently combative (pun intended) competitor.

If you want to suggest that the board approach this issue generally, perhaps
by contacting Apple, go for it. If you want to do it yourself, then you're
not representing GNOME at all and need to make that absolutely clear (or
don't even flag the relationship at all).

- Jeff

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GVADEC 2004: Kristiansand, Norway                    http://2004.guadec.org/
 
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