[ripe-chair-discuss] Bishop of Rome (was Status of RIPE Chair discussion?)

Carlos,

At 2017-05-17 11:56:06 +0100
Carlos Friacas <cfriacas at fccn.pt> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> 
> On Wed, 17 May 2017, Nigel Titley wrote:
> 
> (...)
> >
> > Could I make a suggestion:
> >
> > 1. RIPE Chair job description: Doing the sort of things that the RIPE
> > Chair should do.
> >
> > 2. RIPE Chair selection process: Selected as needed
> >
> > Both of these definitions seem to have worked fine in the past and have
> > the benefit of not involving legions of amateur lawyers who might be
> > better involved in doing something useful.
> >
> > I will now keep quiet and do something useful
> 
> In this line of secret-wg suggestions, i would also like to ask on this 
> list what do you think about the Vatican Chair selection process.
> 
> Can we copy it freely (with or without smoke?), or is there any Copyright 
> in place...?

The letter covering this was written in 1996, and does claim to be
copyrighted:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_22021996_universi-dominici-gregis.html

As an amateur lawyer, my understanding is that since the Vatican City
has signed the Berne Convention for Copyright this will remain
copyrighted until 70 years after the death of the author. Since Pope
John-Paul II died in 2005 this will remain under copyright until 2075,
by which time we may still be discussing the RIPE Chair selection
process. So this may indeed be a good starting point.

Since we want a process resistant to hacking, we should probably review
Bruce Schneier's excellent write-up:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/02/hacking_the_pap.html

Not surprisingly, the Wikipedia has a nice write up about the history
of the process, including this interesting quote:

    The lack of an institutionalized process for papal succession was
    prone to religious schism, and many papal claimants before 1059 are
    currently regarded by the Church as antipopes, although most are
    not. Furthermore, the frequent requirement of secular approval of
    elected popes significantly lengthened periods of sede vacante and
    weakened the papacy. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_selection_before_1059

Luckily we work in an industry without any religious wars, so we don't
have to worry about this sort of thing.

Cheers,

--
Shane
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