Subject: Re: Antitrust FAQ

From: Abdussalam Baryun <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:18:41 +0200

I support the reminder, however, would like to add considerations,
suggestions and my questions.
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I see that it only includes information related to antitrust

The *reminder-document* should be for both Companies (i.e.
managers/owners/share-holders) and IETF-participants, so we including
companies as well, there should not be any antitrust agreement against
a participant individual as well (i.e. All IETF input and output
decisions are from individual participants not companies).

AB>Amend> Antitrust law prohibits agreements that unreasonably
restrain trust, and business.

The word *trade* is more for companies, but *business* will include
participant individuals. The main issue is *trust* so should be in the
document.

AB>suggest> Q2:  *Competitive information includes:* I recommend to
put some exclude examples to clarify the answer. The last line in the
answer is not enough.

AB> My Questions: (as I still don't understand clearly from the document):
Qa) Is an information of technology advantages over another
competitive one prohibited?

Qb) Is an information of a standard advantages over another standard prohibited?
(e.g. many companies may hide technology analysis results from the market)

Qc) Do we as IETFers separate the product technology from the business
provider or we mix them? or does the customer/market-channels mix
between the two? I think we (i.e. participating in volunteering
standardising for the Internet Community) do that perfectly, maybe
companies (i.e. market profit makers, owner of percentage of market
share) don't understand that, and they MAY need reminder too.

Finally IMHO, The Qa and Qb questions are not understood from the
Antitrust FAQ doc. Participants on discussion lists always like to
argue/find-out technical advantages and disadvantages, and make clear
*HOW / WHEN* to use/not-use such technology/standard. I suggest to
include some information explaining Qc.

AB

>
> The IETF does not have a formal antitrust policy.  In fact, the
> ANTITRUST BOF concluded that a formal policy was not needed.  However,
> educational material is needed so that all IETF participants are aware
> of the the law.  The first draft of a FAQ to fill this need has been
> developed.  Please review the FAQ, and if you discover any issues
> raise them in response to this message.
>
> http://www.ietf.org/playground/antitrust-faq.html
>
> Thanks,
>   Russ
>