ISSUE-174: Rescinding a Recommendation in conflict with later versions and patent obligations

Rescinding a Recommendation in conflict with later versions and patent obligations

State:: CLOSED
Product:: Process Document
Raised by:: Steve Zilles
Opened on:: 2016-10-10
Description:: The text of section 6.9 of the Process Document contains the following reason for rescinding a Recommendation,

"W3C may rescind a Recommendation, for example if the Recommendation contains many errors that conflict with a later version, ...."

By convention and practice, patent licensing commitments for later versions include the patent licensing commitments for the Recommendations they extend. Since rescinding an earlier version remove the requirement to issue new licenses for the patents committed to rescinded version. That, in effect, could be viewed as removing those patent commitments for the later versions the extended the now rescinded Recommendation. This is clearly not desirable.

Since it is now possible to obsolete a Recommendation and obsoleting a Recommendation does not change the patent licensing commitments, that method should be preferred for handling older versions of a Recommendation that contain errors corrected in a later version.

Therefore, the clause, "the Recommendation contains many errors that conflict with a later version" should be moved as an example of something that should be rescinded to become an example of something that should be obsoleted.
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