[cabfpub] Code Signing Working Group

[Gervase Markham]

Hi everyone,

I am told that the Code Signing Working Group is not only working with
its members to provide the necessary open licensing for its work product
to allow it to be used outside the forum (an activity I entirely
support) but is also continuing to work on the document itself, which
was rejected by the Forum in ballot 158.

Given the reasons which were given for the rejection, it seems unlikely
that the group is working on the document because it reasonably expects
to present it for a re-vote in the near future. This raises the question
of why work continues at all.

At this point, we would look at the ballot which formed the Code Signing
Working Group to see what its terms of reference were and when the
Working Group expires; however, this Working Group was not properly
formed using a ballot, and so no such document exists.

If organizations or companies outside the Forum want to take the work
product under the new license and use it, perhaps with further
modifications, then those modifications are the responsibility of those
companies, and not of the Forum. (And neither the original nor any
resulting document should be labelled in a way which suggests that it is
an official Forum document.)

We do now have a Governance Reform working group which (I hope) may one
day result in a reform of the CAB Forum governance to allow sub-parts of
the Forum to work on Code Signing, Email, etc., with some hope that
their documents might be accepted by the full Forum. At that point, it
may make sense to have a Code Signing Working Group, even continuing the
work started by this one on the Code Signing BRs. However, we are
nowhere near that yet.

Given the lack of formal status or of a clear mission which is within
the scope of the Forum, I am minded to put forward a ballot to disband
the Code Signing Working Group, and I want to bring this idea to the
list for discussion. If we later need such a group again, we can
constitute one in accordance with the Bylaws.

Gerv