[ih] Internet History

[Craig Partridge]

In message <5.1.0.14.2.20010908100207.03175488 at mail.reed.com>, "David P. Reed" 
writes:

>I realize this may be an obnoxious question, but it would be interesting to 
>determine when (I assume in the 1980's) the community of Internet 
>architects decide that copyright was an affirmative tool in controlling who 
>is allowed to know what about how designs proceeded?

I don't recall when copyright came into the picture -- I think that was
later and as an artefact of being in control of the documents (you had to
surrender copyright to the IETF).

The Internet-Draft policy of having the document explicitly be ephemeral was,
as I recall, a tool designed to manage the standards process by ensuring
that ideas either progressed or died, but didn't linger.  It was created
pre-copyright days according to my (often faulty) memory.

Craig