-----Original Message-----
In the General Comments bit, there's an overarching comment that includes this: "the participants also may need to consider amendments to the IETF Trust documents …".
I understand uneasiness in CWG about this issue, but I want to be crystal clear: modifying the Trust Agreement _at all_ for the purposes of this effort is simply not on. It involves an enormous amount of process in the IETF, and we actually don't have time now to complete such changes even if I thought that it would be practically possible to make such changes to the IETF Trust. I've tried to be open about this all along, so I hope it comes as no surprise.
Having been part of this process from the beginning, I can vouch for the fact that this point was made repeatedly during our discussions of the IANA domain and IPR. I was firmly of the impression that the group that worked on this had concluded that the benefits of relying on the IETF Trust outweighed any benefits that might come from a hypothetical need to modify the Trust Agreement. I thought we had made this choice long ago. Surprised that it is coming up again.
If people conclude that it is necessary to modify the Trust Agreement to satisfy the concerns of the CWG, then the IETF Trust is not a candidate at all for this role. I hope we all realise that this means we'd need a new trust to be established. While I think creating such a trust is about an afternoon of work for any lawyer competent in this area of the law, in my opinion the organizational details that we'd have to work out in such a case are altogether unlikely to happen in time for this all to be completed by September.
Completely agree, this is one of the main reasons why we chose to go with the IETF Trust. --MM