Internet-Drafts Don't Expire
draft-thomson-gendispatch-no-expiry-00

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GENDISPATCH                                                   M. Thomson
Internet-Draft                                                   Mozilla
Updates: 2418 (if approved)                             November 4, 2019
Intended status: Best Current Practice
Expires: May 7, 2020

                      Internet-Drafts Don't Expire
                 draft-thomson-gendispatch-no-expiry-00

Abstract

   The long-standing insistence that Internet-Drafts carry expiration
   dates is a concept that is no longer necessary.  This document
   removes requirements for expiration for Internet-Drafts from RFC
   2418/BCP 25.

Note to Readers

   Discussion of this document takes place on the GENDISPATCH Working
   Group mailing list (gendispatch@ietf.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/gendispatch/ [1].

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/martinthomson/no-expiry [2].

Status of This Memo

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

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   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."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 7, 2020.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

Thomson                    Expires May 7, 2020                  [Page 1]
Internet-Draft        Internet-Drafts Don't Expire         November 2019

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://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 Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Removing Internet-Draft Expiration  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Security and Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     5.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     5.2.  URIs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

1.  Introduction

   The I-D Guidelines [3] declares that Internet Drafts expire 185 days
   after their posting unless replaced or under a range of special
   conditions, such as when the document is under IESG review.

   Expiration of drafts is believed to encourage authors to update
   drafts that they wish to discuss.  Expired drafts are no longer
   served from the primary IETF servers.

   Copies of expired drafts are retained and can be obtained using other
   services.  Expired drafts are routinely cited and referenced.
   Published RFCs routinely include informative references to drafts,
   which then usually expire.

   Forced expiration serves no purpose that is not adequately served by
   the publication date on the document.

2.  Removing Internet-Draft Expiration

   The date of posting for an Internet-Draft is sufficient information
   for readers to understand validity.

   This document proposes that the "Expires:" field be removed from the
   header of submitted Internet-Drafts, and that the boilerplate be
   amended as follows:

Thomson                    Expires May 7, 2020                  [Page 2]
Internet-Draft        Internet-Drafts Don't Expire         November 2019

   OLD:

      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."

   NEW:

      Internet-Drafts are draft documents that 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."

   Creating a revision to the I-D Guidelines will be necessary to remove
   references to expiration.