The IR are there to prevent discrimination and penalties being exacted on characters by their superiors as a result of their choice to log in on a regular basis or not. They do not (or should not) exist to protect an entire realm from war because another realm's ruler gave them a deadline. By your (the plaintiff's) definition of the IR, any deadline at all would be a violation as it could potentially infringe upon a player's choice to log in or not, and thus they should sit around for a few months discussing it instead.