Procedures for Rights Handling in the RFC Independent Submission Stream
draft-braden-independent-submission-02

Independent Stream                                             R. Braden
Internet-Draft                                                       ISI
Updates: 4846 (if approved)                                   J. Halpern
Intended status: Informational                                  Ericsson
Expires: May 13, 2010                                   November 9, 2009

      Procedures for Rights Handling in the RFC Independent Stream
               draft-braden-independent-submission-02.txt

Abstract

   This document specifies the procedures by which authors of RFC
   Independent Stream documents grant the community "incoming" rights
   for copying and using the text.  It also specifies the "outgoing"
   rights the community grants to readers and users of those documents,
   and it requests that the IETF Trust manage the outgoing rights to
   effect this result.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 13, 2010.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal

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   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Background  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.  Rules for Submission and Use of Material  . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5.  Procedures requested of the IETF Trust  . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   6.  Patent and Trademark Rules for the Independent Submission
       Stream  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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1.  Introduction

   As the IETF has grown, the process and the community have gotten more
   careful about defining the rights relating to copying documents that
   are granted by authors to the community, and the corresponding rights
   that are granted by the community to readers and users of these
   documents.

   This document defines the the copyright procedures for RFC
   Independent Stream documents.  It parallels the procedures for IETF-
   produced documents, defined in RFC 5377 [RFC5377] and RFC 5378
   [RFC5378].

   In summary, submissions in the Independent Stream use the same
   submission procedures and mechanisms that are defined in RFC 5378,
   and hence require the same "incoming rights" as IETF-stream
   documents.  This document provides advice to the Trustees of the IETF
   Trust on "outgoing" rights to be granted to readers and users of
   Independent Stream documents, and it explicitly requests the IETF
   Trust to manage the rights in accordance with this advice.

   This document also specifies the policies with regard to the
   disclosure of Patents and Trademarks that may be relevant to a
   submission intended for the Independent Stream.

2.  Background

   The concept of RFC streams in general, and the Independent Submission
   RFC Stream in particular, are described in Section 5 of RFC 4844
   [RFC4844] and in RFC 4846 [RFC4846].  In general terms, the
   Independent Stream continues the long-established tradition in the
   Internet community of allowing and encouraging the RFC Editor to
   publish documents that are relevant to the community but are not
   products of, and do not conflict with, the IETF process.  These may
   be comments on IETF documents, or they may be other work relevant to
   the Internet that historically the RFC Editor has chosen to publish.

   With the publication of RFC 5620 [RFC5620], the IETF began a process
   shift in which the responsibility for Independent Stream publication
   will move to an individual designated by the IAB as the Independent
   Submission Editor (ISE).

   Section 8 of RFC 4846 presented the copyright rules for the
   Independent Submission stream.  The present document is intended to
   be fully consistent with that section, and to update it by clarifying
   the formal procedures that the IETF Trust will use to effect those
   rules.

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3.  Goals

   The goal of the Independent Submission Stream of RFCs is to publish
   information that is intended to advance the state of the art and the
   interoperability of solutions for use in conjunction with the
   Internet.  As specified in Section 8 of RFC 4846, the community has
   determined that this objective will best be met with a liberal
   copyright policy on Independent Stream documents.  Therefore, the
   Independent Stream policy is to allow any individual reading such
   documents to use the content thereof in any manner.  The only
   restriction is that proper credit ("attribution") must be given.
   Lawyers describe this liberal policy by saying that this stream
   normally permits "unlimited derivative works".  (It should be noted
   that this liberal policy was always followed by the original RFC
   Editor, Jon Postel; in a sense the present document is a
   formalization of a 30-year-old policy on RFC copyrights).

   However, for a small subset of documents published as Independent
   Submissions, it is not reasonable to permit unlimited derivative
   works.  Examples are proprietary protocols and output from other
   standards bodies.  In such cases, authors are permitted to request
   that the published Independent Stream documents permit no derivative
   works.

   Note also that this unlimited derivative works policy applies to all
   parts of an Independent Stream document, including any code.
   Therefore, no separate licensing procedure is required for extracting
   and adapting code that is contained in an Independent Stream document
   submitted under the (preferred) unlimited derivative works terms.  On
   the other hand, code may not be extracted and adapted from
   Independent Stream documents submitted under the no derivative works
   terms.

4.  Rules for Submission and Use of Material

   Independent Stream authors will submit their material as Internet-
   Drafts.  These drafts will be submitted to, and stored in, the IETF
   Internet-Drafts repository in the same fashion as IETF Internet-
   Drafts.

   During Internet-Draft submission, authors who intend to submit their
   document for publication in the Independent Stream will grant rights
   as described in RFC 5378 [RFC5378].  To request that the contribution
   be published as an RFC that permits no derivative works, an author
   may use the form specified for use with RFC 5378.

   The IETF Trust will indicate that, in cooperation with the

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   Independent Submission Editor, the Trust grants to readers and users
   of material from Independent Stream RFCs the right to make unlimited
   derivative works, unless the RFC specifies that no derivative works
   are permitted.  This will permit anyone to copy, extract, modify, or
   otherwise use material from Independent Stream RFCs as long as
   suitable attribution is given.

   Contributors of Internet-Drafts intended for the Independent
   Submission Stream will include suitable boilerplate defined by the
   IETF Trust.  This boilerplate shall indicate compliance with RFC 5378
   and shall explicitly indicate either that no derivative works can be
   based on the contribution, or, as is preferred, that unlimited
   derivative works may be crafted from the contribution.

   It should be understood that the final publication decision for the
   Independent Stream rests with the Independent Submission Editor
   (ISE).  Compliance with these terms is not a guarantee of
   publication.  In particular, the ISE may question the appropriateness
   of a "no derivative works" restriction requested by an author.  The
   appropriateness of such usage must be negotiated among the authors
   and the ISE.

5.  Procedures requested of the IETF Trust

   The Independent Submission Editor requests that the IETF Trust and
   its Trustees assist in meeting the goals and procedures set forth in
   this document.

   The Trustees are requested to publicly confirm their willingness and
   ability to accept responsibility for the Intellectual Property Rights
   for the Independent Submission Stream.  They are also requested to
   indicate their willingness and intent to work according to the
   procedures and goals defined by the ISE.

   Specifically, the Trustees are asked to develop the necessary
   boilerplate to enable the suitable marking of documents so that the
   IETF Trust receives the rights as specified in RFC 5378.  These
   procedures need to also allow documents to grant either no rights to
   make derivative works, or preferentially, the right to make unlimited
   derivative works from the documents.  It is left to the Trust to
   specify exactly how this shall be clearly indicated in each document.

6.  Patent and Trademark Rules for the Independent Submission Stream

   As specified above, contributors of documents for the Independent
   Submissions stream are expected to use the IETF Internet-Draft

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   process, complying therein with the rules specified in the latest
   version of BCP 9, whose version at the time of writing was RFC 2026
   [RFC2026].  This includes the disclosure of Patent and Trademark
   issues that are known, or can be reasonably expected to be known, to
   the contributor.

   Disclosure of license terms for patents is also requested, as
   specified in the most recent version of BCP 79.  The version of BCP
   79 at the time of this writing was RFC 3979 [RFC3979] updated by RFC
   4879 [RFC4879].  The Independent Stream has chosen to use the IETF's
   IPR disclosure mechanism, www.ietf.org/ipr/, for this purpose.  The
   Independent Submission Editor would prefer the most liberal terms
   possible be made available for specifications published as
   Independent Stream documents.  Terms which do not require fees or
   licensing are preferable.  Non-discriminatory terms are strongly
   preferred over those which discriminate among users.  However,
   although disclosure is required, there are no specific requirements
   on the licensing terms for intellectual property related to
   Independent Stream publication.

7.  IANA Considerations

   There are no IANA Considerations in this document, as no computer
   protocols are discussed, and no code points assigned.  This section
   may be removed by the RFC Editor.

   This document does make specific request of the IASA, as described in
   preceding sections.

8.  Security Considerations

   The integrity and quality of the Independent Stream are the
   responsibility of the Independent Stream Editor.  This document does
   not change those responsibilities.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2026]  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
              3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

   [RFC3979]  Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
              Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.

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   [RFC4844]  Daigle, L. and Internet Architecture Board, "The RFC
              Series and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007.

   [RFC4846]  Klensin, J. and D. Thaler, "Independent Submissions to the
              RFC Editor", RFC 4846, July 2007.

   [RFC4879]  Narten, T., "Clarification of the Third Party Disclosure
              Procedure in RFC 3979", BCP 79, RFC 4879, April 2007.

   [RFC5378]  Bradner, S. and J. Contreras, "Rights Contributors Provide
              to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378, November 2008.

   [RFC5620]  Kolkman, O. and IAB, "RFC Editor Model (Version 1)",
              RFC 5620, August 2009.

9.2.  Informative References

   [RFC5377]  Halpern, J., "Advice to the Trustees of the IETF Trust on
              Rights to Be Granted in IETF Documents", RFC 5377,
              November 2008.

Authors' Addresses

   Robert Braden
   USC Information Sciences Institute
   4676 Admiralty Way
   Marina del Rey, CA  90292
   US

   Email: braden@isi.edu

   Joel M. Halpern
   Ericsson
   P. O. Box 6049
   Leesburg, VA  20178
   US

   Email: jhalpern@redback.com

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