Copyrights and licenses (Was: RSS 0.94)

[Ken MacLeod <ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us>]

First, a nit: "copyright" is one's "exclusive legal right to
reproduce, publish, and sell the matter and form", from which the
author can then grant a "license" to release certain of those rights.
What we're talking about here is the "license".

I believe that there should be statement of copyright and of license.
The license spells out exactly what you can or can't do with a work.
Without a license, one must generally assume that they have only "fair
use" rights, which definitely does not cover producing future
versions.

What's at issue, I think, is the difference (or lack thereof) between
the IETF license and the UserLand license.

The IETF license makes it clear that the IETF, and its working group
members, can make future updates to the specification document.

The UserLand license makes it clear that UserLand can make future
updates to the specification document.  The RSS 0.94 document further
clarifies, "UserLand will continue to add optional features to RSS, in
cooperation with others in the content and tools communities."

For historical note, this subtle distinction was pointed out when it
was first applied to XML-RPC.

If that's not the intent -- UserLand is not intending to be the sole
owner and originator of this form and style of RSS 0.9x
specifications, the specification considered "normative" for the RSS
community -- then the license as written is in error.

  -- Ken