[JDEV] Question about licensing

[Isotope2k at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/6/99 6:04:49 PM US Eastern Standard Time, 
quad at jabber.org writes:

<< The _protocol_ is not under GPL. >>

In light of this statement, I have a few questions.

What license is the protocol released under?
Who is the legal issuer of said license?
If the point of releasing the protocol under a non-GPL license
is to ensure that proprietary clients can be developed without
enforcing the GPL on them, why not just add an addendum to
the GPL license that allows for this?

My primary concern here is that some corporate entity might
eventually control the rights to the Jabber protocol and enforce
restrictive or cost-oriented licenses.  In other words, "sure, you
can see the source code, but we OWN the mechanic."

Regards,
Christopher Atkins