Re: NAT support and laws for the lawless

[Joe Touch <touch@ISI.EDU>]

Tony Hain wrote:

> Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:
...
> 
>>The title of this thread implies that people believe that the
>>IETF sets laws
>>and has a right of veto over net use. The IETF is no
>>difference in principle
>>to any other open source type project, people can and do fork
>>the code tree.
>>
> 
> I didn't even read the subject until you pointed it out, but the point
> is not about what authority the IETF has over use of its writings. The
> point is that the IETF is in control of the focus of the WGs and how
> much time they spend trying to define duplicate solutions. 


Since I created the title, perhaps I should clarify.

By 'law', I meant 'standard', as in 'protocol standard'.

There are a set of such standards, a subset of the RFCs which have "STD" 
numbers, including 1122, 1123, 1812, etc. A combination of the 
IETF/IAB/IESG do determine what RFCs become STDs.

The IETF does set laws, in the above sense. There is no authority about 
'veto' over net use, but they have, as Tony points out, authority over 
whether to pass mutually conflicting 'laws' or create WGs to spend time 
doing so.

Joe