>1. Jose Maria is not an EARN volunteer! It is his Job to > contribute to the operation and development of EARN and DFN. > He is paid for this by GMD. To earn (:-) some money does not exclude voluntary work. If all networkers on this world would only work the hours they are paid for ... >2. Although GMD isn't allways in favour of EARN decissions > GMD does not not support any strategy of imposing pressure > on the EARN administration by selectively distributing > technical solutions everywhere but within EARN. This is not > a way to improove EARN, it is destructive. What is destructive to EARN, that's a pretty good question :-) > >3. Since Jose Maria is employed by GMD and since the developments > he announced where on base of GMD-owned ressources he is not > authorized to give any statements on the availability. This > is especially true for strange and unjustified statements that > do not agree to GMD policy. The status of software developed by employees during their spare time but using equipment of their employee, that's another interesting question (for lawyers, that is). Especially if it is hard to define working hours and spare time. BUT THIS REALLY DOESN'T MATTER. The first version of LISTSEND was written BEFORE Jose Maria started working with GMD. Therefore Jose Maria is free to do what he want with LISTSEND (maybe a former employer could claim some rights, maybe not). If he has improved LISTSEND during his working hours, GMD could restrict the distribution of this improved version. But I'm under the impression that this is not intended :-) >So the best thing to do for now is to ignore Jose Maria's quoted >paragraph. I guess better news are to follow when Jose Maria is >back from hollidays. > >Klaus Birkenbihl To write such a letter during the absence of a person instead of waiting for him to return and discuss this internally first is not what I would consider good style. For sure it is not the best thing to do for now. And I don't think that it will help to motivate other volunteers to spend time on this existing network instead of waiting for the bright ISO-OSI future that will solve all our problems, even those we never dreamed about. Thomas