RE: Netscape 4.5 and HTTP/1.1 Accept-Encoding

> If you reference LZW in the HTTP spec, then RFC 2026 section 10.3.2 comes
> into effect. That means you have to document the Unisys patent in the spec
> and the IETF executive director will have to contact Unisys with a request
> for openly specified, reasonable, non-discriminatory licensing terms.

If you want to bring this to the attention of the IESG, the IESG may decide
to attach a note to the HTTP draft specification that the use of the
"compress"
encoding might be covered by patent claims, and I may need to ask the
implementations surveyed for implementation of content-encoding whether
they have "taken adequate steps to comply with any such rights, or claimed
rights".

However, the "significant implementation and successful operational
experience"
with the use of the "compress" encoding leads me to assert that there
is no barrier to the use of "compress" in advancing to Draft Standard
status.

I'll review this with the area directors, though.

Larry
--
http://www.parc.xerox.com/masinter

Received on Tuesday, 3 November 1998 18:36:46 UTC