Re: Negotiating for using Royalty Free patents

[Ryan McDougall <ryan mcdougall telusplanet net>]

On Sat, 2004-04-10 at 16:42 -0400, Daniel Veillard wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 10, 2004 at 02:32:29PM -0600, Ryan McDougall wrote:
> > On Sat, 2004-04-10 at 15:54 -0400, Daniel Veillard wrote:
> > I know you are an easily excitable guy, based on how you reacted over
> > other things, including the "that and a pair of testicles" gong show. I
> 
>   I'm also one of the individuals who worked to build the legal
> foundation of the project you have just misrepresented to an external
> potential partner.
>   You are right that misrepesenting the community, its ideas, its work
> are things I do not accept easily, and won't let pass without a serious
> fight !

I misrepresented GNOME, without a lot of thought I must admit, but not
thoughtlessly. I did so as a white lie, knowing full well that if the
outcome was good, there would be no harm, but if the outcome was not
welcome it would be very easy to dismiss me as not representing the
community. 

I also did it because individuals, to a certain degree, *do* represent
the community.

> 
> > also know that a community is represented by its individuals, whether
> > the community likes it or not. Therefore, I'm giving you, personally,
> 
>   That community is the GNOME project. There is an elected board 
> and its mission is precisely to deal with our industrial partners,
> possibly delegating to comitees or individuals some part of its work,
> and then reporting to the community by the way of timely minutes
> the work being done on behalf of the community. I'm not part of the
> board, though I used to, I have no power (except I may still be
> the officially assigned secretary for the Foundation, it may have
> changed but I didn't got any notice).

Then why doesn't the board participate on any of the mailing lists? This
isn't the first time I've asked for the board to use its position. It
also isn't the first time I have done the foot work to get comments from
people inside the relevant parties. I have a discussion with James
Gosling wrt the language debate that I haven't gotten permission to
share with you all.

> 
> > the decision about what I will do. Write me back, and I will unsubscribe
> > from all GNOME mailing lists, and you will never hear again from this
> > "troll" again.
> 
>   I think that if you disagree with the GNOME Foundation bylaws which
> indicate how the project works, then trying to get those bylaws changed
> might be the right thing to do, you can also run for the board in next
> elections to try to gauge the representativity you really hold within
> the community. If you wish to unsubscribe it's your right, that's not
> what I asked for. I asked for an apology, very different !

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

> 
> Daniel

Cheers,
Ryan