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by rcade 1096 days ago
I'm Rogers Cadenhead, the chairman of the RSS Advisory Board.

What W3C is doing is correct. It is republishing our copy of the RSS specification under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike license and using our preferred authorship credit: RSS Advisory Board with a link to https://www.rssboard.org/.

The RSS Advisory Board has published the RSS 2.0 specification for 20 years. Over that time we have revised it 10 times, mostly in minor ways such as to fix a broken link.

The board began publishing the spec under a Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike license when Dave Winer was still a member. It is redistributable under the terms of that license forever.

Winer wrote this on his blog in 2003:

"On July 15, UserLand Software transferred ownership of its RSS 2.0 specification to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

"Berkman then placed a Creative Commons license on the spec, allowing it to be customized, excerpted and republished. ...

"The spec can circulate freely thanks to the Creative Commons."

http://scripting.com/davenet/2003/07/28/harvardHostsKeyWeblo...
1 comments
donpark 1096 days ago
Transfer of ownership nor CC licensing explains the lack of attribution, a sign of disrespect and disregard.
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rcade 1096 days ago
The credit line on the specification has been unchanged since Aug. 12, 2006: "This document is authored by the RSS Advisory Board and is offered under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike license, based on an original document published by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society."

We've never been asked to change that, by Dave Winer or anyone else.

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donpark 1093 days ago
He is now asking. Are you saying it's too late?
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rcade 1093 days ago
Because of his new request for an attribution change, the credit line now reads, "This document is authored by the RSS Advisory Board and is offered under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike license, based on an original document published by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society authored by Dave Winer, founder of UserLand Software."

https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification

This also includes a change to reflect that the Berkman Center for Internet & Society became the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society in 2016.

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donpark 1091 days ago
Excellent.
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shelleyp 1095 days ago
There should never be something about 'respect' when it comes to a specification.

When I publish anything on the web, do I have to give credit to Tim Berners-Lee each time?

A specification isn't a badge of honor, it's a useful tool, one among many. Other than clarification of who is currently authority for, and making changes to, a specification, there should be no names on any spec or standard.

.

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donpark 1093 days ago
Respect is also a useful tool. It reduces conflicts just as diplomacy reduces violence. Yes, respect can be set aside but, when you do, expect controversy.

Why would anyone want to invite unnecessary controversy when writing a spec?

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