RE: [idn] NSI Multilingual Testbed Information (fwd)

[bill@mail.nic.nu (J. William Semich)]

Paul:

At 11:55 AM 8/26/00 -0700, Paul Hoffman / IMC wrote:

>>Since we are using UTF-8 for NUBIND and other implementations of
>>multilingual services in our system, this patent does not affect the NUBIND
>>and related IDN implementations.

>The fact that raw UTF-8 sent to applications does not work with a 
>myriad of Internet protocols might affect your choice as well.

<snip>

>It would be wonderful if all other 
>vendors had this much commitment to the IETF standards process.

I'm not sure if you think these two comments of yours are connected or not,
but it looks like it to me. It is important to point out that NUBIND's
support for UTF-8, as stated in my earlier comment, is the result of our
decision to follow current IETF standards for IDN under RFC2277:

   Protocols MUST be able to use the UTF-8 charset, which consists of
   the ISO 10646 coded character set combined with the UTF-8 character
   encoding scheme, as defined in [10646] Annex R (published in
   Amendment 2), for all text.

The fact that some "legacy" applications don't support that IETF standard
is certainly significant, but I'm not going to second-guess the IETF
decision to select UTF-8 as the standard, and just go off and invent some
other protocol for a working IDN implementation, live on the Internet, in
the .NU TLD. That decision, if it's made, is supposed to come out of the
efforts of this group, right? Meanwhile, NUBIND will stick with the current
standards...

If, as the result of activities of this or any other WG, the IETF ever
changes that MUST to a SHOULD or a MAY, or if it changes it to include an
ACE that is clean and non-problematic, of course, NUBIND will support that
as well - as part of our commitment to the standards process.

>>I'd be surprised if
>>Microsoft or TimeWarner/AOL/Netscape would be willing to migrate their
>>browsers to an ACE at this point, especially facing the possibility of a
>>claim from Pouflis. But since I'm sure both companies have someone in this
>>WG, perhaps they'd care to comment on the issue?

>You may find it surprising to hear that Microsoft and Netscape are 
>strongly committed to following IETF standards, but many of us are 
>not.

Sorry for not making my point clearer here. I don't doubt Netscape and
Microsoft are committed to following IETF standards and to participating in
and supporting the standards process (as I noted in my opinion about their
support for UTF-8). 

The point of this comment was to note that, from a business perspective,
large corporations are averse to implementing any technology to which
someone else may hold a patent claim, since their size alone would make
them a target for legal action. So they may not be strong supporters of
selecting, as a standard, an ACE technology that may be "at risk." But, as
stated, that would be for them to comment on, not me. Isn't that the whole
point of the RFC 2026 disclosure?

Bill Semich
.NU Domain