Re: Licensing question regarding WS-ReliableMessaging

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003, Sanjiva Weerawarana wrote:
> The specification we'd like to implement is:
>     http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-rm/
> The concerned IP statements are at the top of the specification.

I *believe* there's general agreement that an implementation of a protocol
is not a derivative work of the specification for that protocol.  For some
reason Java implementations of JCP JSRs are considered derivative, but I
believe that's on the theory that they implement a specific namespace.  So
as far as copyright is concerned, there is no worry.

Furthermore, (to use IBM as an example), any right that IBM has to
implement the protocol, whether under copyright or trademark, is passed
along to the Apache project through the contributions of IBM-employed
contributors.  Since IBM was apparently a key participant in the
definition of this protocol, there shouldn't be a question.  Since you're
an employee of IBM, though, you should ask an IBM lawyer to confirm.

        Brian