Revised Section 6.9 based on Ian Jacobs re-write and comments thereon

The following revision of the (revised) section 6.9 of the Process Document
was prepared based on the discussion at the TPAC AC Meeting
<https://www.w3.org/2016/09/22-ac-minutes.html#item01>  and comments by
Steve Zilles
<https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-w3process/2016Sep/0022.html> ,
David Singer
<https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-w3process/2016Sep/0025.html>
and Ian Jacobs on Ian Jacobs' prior proposed text
<https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-w3process/2016Aug/0018.html>
for this section.

 

The main changes are:

1.      Being  consistent about the ordering in which "rescind, obsolete and
restore" are mentioned when they are used;

2.      Change "necessary to undo a Recommendation" to "necessary to change
the status of a Recommendation";

3.      To change the definition of a Rescinded Recommendation to indicate
that there is no process to restore it;

4.      To give the restoration process equal status to those for rescinding
or obsoleting a Recommendation and to indicate that only Obsoleted
Recommendations can be restored; 

5.      Moved "contains many errors that conflict with a later version" as a
cause for action from rescinding to obsoleting because rescinding an earlier
version may remove patent protection from the later versions. With the
addition of obsoleting, rescinding is no longer necessary in this case.

 

It is believed that these changes are editorial; there are no changes to the
actual process used for these three cases (rescinding, obsoleting or
restoring).

 

Steve Z


6.9 Obsoleting or Rescinding a W3C Recommendation


>From time to time, W3C may find it necessary to change the status of a
Recommendation. W3C uses a similar process but different terminology to
distinguish two types of change:

-        "Rescinded Recommendation": W3C no longer recommends this
technology and does not intend to restore it to Recommendation status.

-        "Obsoleted Recommendation": W3C no longer recommends this
technology but there is a reasonable chance W3C could restore it to
Recommendation status.

 

W3C might rescind a Recommendation when:

*       W3C discovers burdensome patent claims that affect implementers and
cannot be resolved; see the W3C Patent Policy
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy>  [PUB33
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/cfef536bff0d/cover.html#ref-patentpolicy
> ] and in particular section 5
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy#sec-Requirements>  (bullet 10)
and section 7.5
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy#sec-PAG-conclude> .

 

W3C might obsolete a Recommendation when:

*       W3C concludes it no longer represents best practices, or

*       This version contains many errors that conflict with a later
version, or

*       Industry has not adopted the technology and future adoption seems
unlikely.

 

W3C might restore an Obsoleted Recommendation when:

*       W3C finds the Recommendation is being used and is not conflict with
later versions, if they exist.

W3C uses the same process for rescinding, obsoleting or restoring a
Recommendation. W3C only rescinds, obsoletes or restore entire
Recommendations. To rescind or obsolete some part of a Recommendation, W3C
follows the process for modifying a Recommendation
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/cfef536bff0d/cover.html#rec-modify> .

For the purposes of the W3C Patent Policy
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy>  [PUB33
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/cfef536bff0d/cover.html#ref-patentpolicy
> ] an Obsolete Recommendation has the status of an active Recommendation,
although it is not recommended for future implementation; a Rescinded
Recommendation ceases to be in effect and no new licenses are granted under
the Patent Policy.

The Director may recommend rescinding, obsoleting or restoring a
Recommendation. The Director must begin a review of a proposal to obsolete,
rescind, or restore a Recommendation when requested to do so by any of the
following:

*	The Working Group who produced, or is chartered to maintain, the
Recommendation.
*	The TAG, if there is no such Working Group
*	Any individual who made a request to the relevant Working Group as
described above, or the TAG if such a group does not exist, to obsolete,
rescind, or restore a Recommendation, whose request was not answered within
90 days
*	5% of the members of the Advisory Committee

For any review of a proposal to rescind, obsolete, or restore a
Recommendation the Director must:

*	Announce the proposal to all Working Group Chairs, and to the
Public.
*	indicate that this is a proposal to rescind, obsolete, or restore a
Recommendation
*	identify the Recommendation by URL.
*	publish a rationale for the proposal.
*	identify known dependencies and solicit review from all dependent
Working Groups
*	solicit public review
*	specify the deadline for review comments, which must be at least
four weeks after the Director's announcement

and should

*	identify known implementations

If there was any
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/cfef536bff0d/cover.html#def-Dissent>
dissent in Advisory Committee reviews, the Director must publish the
substantive content of the dissent to W3C and the public, and must formally
address
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/cfef536bff0d/cover.html#formal-address>
the dissent at least 14 days before publication as an Rescinded or Obsoleted
Recommendation or republished as a Recommendation.

The Advisory Committee
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/cfef536bff0d/cover.html#AC>  may
initiate an Advisory Committee Appeal
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/cfef536bff0d/cover.html#ACAppeal>  of
the Director's decision.

An Obsolete or Rescinded Recommendation must be published with up to date
status. The updated version may remove the main body of the document. The
Status of this Document section should link to an explanation of the
Obsolete or Rescinded status as appropriate.

A restored Recommendation must be published with up to date status that
notes that this Recommendation had temporarily been Obsoleted but is now,
once again, recommended.

Once W3C has published a Rescinded Recommendation, future W3C technical
reports must not include normative references to that technical report.

Note: W3C strives to ensure that any Recommendation -- even obsoleted or
rescinded --  remains available at its original address with a status
update.