Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Asking Tim

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:9/21/2000; 7:42:43 AM
Topic:Asking Tim
Msg #:21577 (In response to 21575)
Prev/Next:21576 / 21578

Tim, when I posted my "RSS" 0.91 spec, I could have left out the OK-To-Copy copyright. The copyright applied to the writing, not the underlying format, as it clearly states. Had I left that copyright out, you wouldn't have been able to take the text and use it on another site. Talk about "no good deed going unpunished."

That spec was done openly and was only documenting current practice. There was lots of feedback. If people had problems with me doing it at the time, they didn't tell me, in fact there are comments under the spec from Rael and others, where they're helping. If they had a problem with the copyright, this is the first I'm hearing about it.

I would think that you of all people would appreciate the generosity of a copyright that allows people to steal my work. The agreement was derived from the copyright that's on IETF RFCs. It's stood the test of time, it's fair, not something to freak out over. And as I said, no one freaked out at the time.

As to how this discussion got started, check it out, I didn't start the thread. I pointed to your P2P summit from Scripting News, and one of my readers posted a pretty harsh comment here. You got in the loop, started making statements about me, and I responded.

However I think it's good to get this discussion on the record, in public. When you run summits I want to be sure the participants understand why you don't invite me to participate. Tim, I am involved in lots more than RSS, we're developing all the software I described in yesterday's DaveNet. That is part of the mix of P2P stuff out there.

You can have the RSS 1.0 name, go make it work, create some new channels. In the meantime we're going forward with our next-generation stuff. This is the stuff that matters, not the personality issues you keep raising.

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