09 February 2009, 09:36

FSF call for opposition to TLS-Authorisation standard

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) have asked for people to object to a renewed attempt to make "TLS authorisation" an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard, asking for people to mail the IETF by the February 11th deadline for comments. The problem, according to the FSF, is that the TLS Authorisation specification is patent encumbered.

At the start of 2006, the IETF introduced a standard for TLS Authorisation and late in the discussion, a company, RedPhone Security, disclosed they held a patent. The proposal had sat in limbo as "experimental or information" for many months since a previous call for action by the FSF, but has recently reappeared as a "proposed standard". The patent would mean that RedPhone would be able to demand licence fees from any implementer of TLS Authorisation. The FSF wants to see the IETF oppose this standard until the patent is made available on a royalty free basis.

(djwm)

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