Network Working Group S. Bradner
Internet-Draft Harvard U.
Editor
June 2002
IETF Rights in Submissions
<draft-bradner-submission-rights-00.txt>
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions
of Section 10 of RFC 2026.
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
Abstract
The IETF policies about rights in submissions to the IETF is designed
to ensure that IETF contributions can be made available to the IETF
and Internet communities while permitting the authors to retain as
many rights in the document as possible. This memo details the IETF
policies on rights in submissions to the IETF. It also describes the
objectives that the policies are designed to meet.
Copyright (C) The Internet Society. (2002)
1. Introduction
Under the laws of most countries and current international treaties
(for example the "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Work" [Berne]), authors obtain numerous rights in the works
they produce automatically upon producing them. These rights include
copyrights, moral rights and other rights. In many cases, if the
author produces a work within the scope of his or her employment,
these rights are usually assigned to the employer, either by
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operation of law or, in many cases, under contract.
In order for works to be used within the IETF process, certain
limited rights in all contributions must be granted to the IETF and
ISOC. In addition, contributors must make representations to IETF
and ISOC regarding their ability to grant these rights. These
necessary rights and representations until now have been laid out in
Section 10 of [RFC 2026]. In the years since [RFC 2026] was published
there have been a number of times when the exact intent of Section 10
has been the subject of vigorous debate within the IETF community.
The aim of this document is to clarify various ambiguities in Section
10 of [RFC 2026] that led to these debates and to amplify the policy
in order to clarify what the IETF is currently doing.
Sections 2 and 3 of this document address the rights in submissions
to the IETF previously covered by Section 10 of [RFC 2026] and the
"Note Well" explanatory text that accompanies many IETF documents.
Sections 4, 5 and 6 then explain the rationale for these provisions,
including some of the clarifications that have been understood since
the adoption of [RFC 2026]. The rules and procedures set out in this
document are not intended to substantially modify or alter IETF's or
ISOC's current policy toward contributions and submissions made to
the IETF.
A companion document [IETF IPR] deals with rights in technologies
developed or specified as part of the IETF process. This document is
not intended to address those issues.
The rights addressed in this document fall into the following
categories:
o rights to make use of contributed material
o copyrights in IETF documents
o rights to produce derivative works
o rights to use trademarks
This document is not intended as legal advice. If you would like a
legal interpretation of your rights or the rights of the IETF in any
contributions you make, you are advised to consult your own legal
advisor.
2. Rights in IETF Submissions
2.1. General Policy
In all matters of copyright and document procedures, the intent is to
benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while
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respecting the legitimate rights of others.
2.2 Confidentiality Obligations
No contribution that is subject to any requirement of confidentiality
or any restriction on its dissemination may be considered in any part
of the Internet Standards Process, and there must be no assumption of
any confidentiality obligation with respect to any such contribution.
2.3. Granting of Rights and Permissions
By submission of a contribution, each person actually submitting the
contribution is deemed to agree to the following terms and
conditions, and to grant the following rights, on their own behalf,
on behalf of the organization (if any) the contributor represents and
on behalf of the owners of any proprietary rights in the
contribution.
a. To the extent that the contribution or any portion thereof is
protected by copyright and other rights of authorship, the
contributor, the organization he or she represents (if any) and
the owners of any such proprietary rights in the contribution,
grant an unlimited perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-
free, world-wide right and license to the ISOC and the IETF under
all intellectual property rights in the contribution
(A) to copy, publish, display and distribute the contribution as
part of the IETF standards process,
(B) unless explicitly disallowed in the written terms of the
contribution [pursuant to one of the notices contained in
Section 3.3 below], to prepare derivative works that are based
on or incorporate all or part of the contribution within the
IETF standards process, the license to such derivative works to
be of the same scope as the license to the original
contribution, and
(C) to reproduce any trademarks, service marks or trade names
which are included in the contribution solely in connection
with the reproduction, distribution or publication of the
contribution and derivative works thereof as permitted by this
paragraph, and in such cases, solely in plain text form without
any design or logo elements, and in all cases reproducing any
trademark or service mark identifiers used by the contributor
of the contribution.
b. The contributor grants the IETF and ISOC permission to reference
the name(s) and address(es) of the contributor(s) and of the
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organization(s) s/he represents (if any).
c. Every copy of a contribution made pursuant to the licenses
granted under paragraph (a)(A) above, and all derivative works
made pursuant to the licenses granted under paragraph (a)(B)
above, must include, in unaltered form, the notices included in
such contribution pursuant to Section 3 below.
2.4 Representations and Warranties. With respect to each contribution,
the contributor(s) each represent that to the best of their knowledge
and ability:
a. The contribution properly acknowledges all major contributors.
b. No information in the contribution is confidential and the IETF,
ISOC, and its affiliated organizations may freely disclose any
information in the contribution.
c. There are no limits to the contributor's ability to make the
grants acknowledgments and agreements herein that are reasonably
and personally known to the contributor.
d. The contributor has not intentionally included in the
contribution any material which is defamatory or untrue or which
is illegal under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the
contributor has his or her principal place of business.
e. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and other proprietary
names used in the contribution are clearly designated as such.
2.5 The contributor acknowledges that the ISOC and IETF have no duty to
publish or otherwise use or disseminate any contribution. IETF
reserves the right to withdraw or cease using any contribution that
does not comply with the requirements of Section 2.3 and 2.4 above.
3. Copyright notice required in IETF Documents to support these rights
grants
The IETF requires that a copyright notice and disclaimer be
reproduced verbatim in all IETF Documents. This requirement protects
IETF and its participants from liabilities connected with these
documents. The copyright notice also alerts readers that the
document is an IETF document, and that ISOC claims copyright rights
in certain aspects of the document, such as its layout, the RFC
numbering convention and the prefatory language of the document.
This legend is not intended to imply that ISOC has obtained ownership
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of the contribution itself, which is retained by the author(s) or
remains in the public domain, as applicable.
3.1 Copyright notice and disclaimer
The following copyright notice and disclaimer shall be included at
the end of all IETF documents.
"Portions Copyright (C) The Internet Society (year). Except as set
forth below, authors retain all their rights.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for rights
in submissions defined in the IETF Standards Process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/S HE
REPRESENTS (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE."
3.2 Notices re. Derivative Works and publication rights.
In addition to the foregoing, each IETF Internet Draft must contain
one of the following three notices regarding derivative works and
publication rights:
a. This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all
provisions of section 2 of RFC XXXX.
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b. This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all
provisions of Section 2 of RFC XXXX except that the right to
produce derivative works is not granted.
c. This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all
provisions of Section 2 RFC XXXX, but the author does not provide
the IETF with any rights other than to publish as an Internet-
Draft
[ note to the RFC Editor - XXXX above to be replaced with the number
of this document ]
4. Definitions
4.1 contribution: in the context of this memo, a contribution to the
IETF is any submission for publication as an Internet Draft or RFC
and any statements made within the context of an IETF process. Such
statements include verbal statements in IETF meetings, as well as
written and electronic communications made at any time or place,
which are addressed to
o the IETF plenary session,
o any IETF working group or portion thereof,
o the IESG, or any member thereof on behalf of the IESG,
o the IAB or any member thereof on behalf of the IAB,
o any IETF mailing list, including the IETF list itself, any working
group or design team list, or any other list functioning under
IETF auspices,
o the RFC Editor or the Internet-Drafts function
Statements made outside of an IETF meeting, mailing list or other
function, that are clearly not intended to be input to an IETF
activity, group or function, are not contributions in the context of
this memo.
4.2 IETF Standards Process: the activities undertaken by the IETF in any
of the settings described in 4.1 above.
4.3 contributors: individuals making contributions
4.4 IETF documents: RFCs and Internet Drafts.
4.5 RFC: the basic publication series for the IETF. RFCs are published
by the RFC Editor and once published are never modified. (See [RFC
2026] sec 2.1)
4.6 Internet Draft: temporary documents used in the IETF process.
Internet Drafts are published by the IETF Secretariat and have a
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nominal maximum lifetime in the Secretariat's public directory of 6
months after which they are removed. Since Internet Drafts are
archived many places on the Internet there is no effective limit on
their lifetime. Internet Drafts that are under active consideration
by the IESG are not removed from the Secretariat's public directory
until that consideration is complete, in addition, the author of an
Internet Draft can request that the lifetime in the Secretariat's
public directory be extended when its expiration time is reached.
(See [RFC 2026] sections 2.2 and 8)
4.7 IETF: In the context of this document, the IETF includes all
individuals who participate in meetings, working groups, functions
and other activities which are organized or initiated by ISOC, the
IESG or the IAB under the general designation of the Internet
Engineering Task Force or IETF, but solely to the extent of such
participation.
5. Exposition of why these procedures are the way they are
5.1 Rights Granted in Contributions
The IETF/ISOC must obtain the right to publish a contribution as an
RFC or an Internet Draft from the contributors.
A primary objective of this policy is to obtain from the document
authors only the non-exclusive rights that are needed to develop and
publish IETF documents and to use the contributions in the IETF
standards process while leaving all other rights with the authors.
The non-exclusive rights that the IETF needs are:
a. the irrevocable right to publish the document
b. the right to let the document be freely reproduced in the formats
that the IETF publishes it in
c. the right to let 3rd parties translate it into languages other
than English
d. except where explicitly excluded (see sec 3.2), the right to make
derivative works within the IETF process.
The authors retain all other rights, but cannot withdraw the above
rights from the IETF/ISOC.
5.2 Rights to use Contributed Material
Because, under the laws of most countries and applicable
international treaties, copyright rights come into existence whenever
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a work of authorship is created (but see Section 6 below regarding
public domain documents), and IETF cannot make use of contributions
if it does not have sufficient rights with respect to these copyright
rights, it is important that the IETF receive assurances from all
contributors that they have the authority to grant the IETF the
rights that they claim to grant. Without this assurance, IETF and
its participants would run a greater risk of liability to the owners
of these rights.
To this end, IETF asks contributors to give the assurances in Section
2.4 above. These assurances are requested, however, only to the
extent of the contributors reasonable and personal knowledge, meaning
that we do not expect the contributor to search his or her employer's
legal files for relevant prohibitions, but similarly that we do not
expect a contributor to remain deliberately ignorant of restrictions
that would reasonably be expected to be within his or her knowledge.
5.3 Right to produce derivative works
The IETF needs to be able to evolve its documents in response to
experience gained in the deployment of the technologies described in
the documents, to incorporate developments in research and to react
to changing conditions on the Internet and other IP networks. In
order to do this the IETF must be able to produce derivatives of its
documents thus the IETF must obtain the right from contributors to
produce derivative works. Note though that the IETF only requires
this right for the production of derivative works within the IETF
process. The IETF does not need, nor does it obtain, the right to
let derivative works be created outside of the IETF process.
The right to produce derivative works is required for all IETF
standards track documents and for most non-standards track documents.
There are two exceptions to this requirement: documents describing
proprietary technologies and documents that are republications of the
work of other standards organizations.
The IETF has historically encouraged organizations to publish details
of their technologies, even where the technologies are proprietary
ones, because understanding how existing technology is being used
helps when developing new technology. But organizations which
publish information about proprietary technologies frequently are not
willing to have the IETF produce revisions of the technologies and
then claim that the IETF version is the "new version" of the
organization's technology. Organizations which feel this way can
specify that the document can be published following the other
provisions of this section but withhold the right to produce
derivative works.
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In addition, IETF documents frequently make normative references to
standards or recommendations developed by other standards
organizations. Since the publications of some standards
organizations are not public documents it can be quite helpful to the
IETF to republish some of these documents as IETF documents so that
the IETF community can have open access to them to better understand
what they are referring to. In these cases the IETF documents can be
published without the right for the IETF to produce derivative works.
In both of the above cases in which the production of derivative
works is excluded, the contributor must include a special legend in
the contribution, as specified in section 3.2, in order to notify
IETF participants about this restriction.
5.4 Rights to use trademarks
Contributors may wish to seek trademark or service mark protection on
any terms that are coined or used in their contributions. IETF makes
no judgment about the validity of any such trademark rights.
However, we ask each contributor, under the licenses described in
Section 2.3.a above, to grant IETF a perpetual license to use any
such trademarks or service marks solely in exercising its rights to
reproduce, publish and modify the contribution. This license does
not authorize any IETF participant to use any trademark or service
mark in connection with any product or service offering, but only in
the context of IETF documents and discussions.
5.5 Who does this apply to?
Rights and licenses granted to the IETF are granted to all
individuals noted in section 4.6, irrespective of their employment or
institutional affiliation. However, these licenses do not extend
broadly to the employers or institutions of such individuals, nor do
they authorize the individuals to exercise any rights outside the
specific context of the IETF standards process.
6. Contributions Not Subject to Copyright
Certain documents, including those produced by the U.S. government
and those which are in the public domain, may not be protected by the
same copyright and other legal rights as other documents.
Nevertheless, we ask each contributor to grant to the IETF the same
rights as he or she would grant, and to make the same
representations, as though the contribution were a proprietary
document. We ask for these grants and representations only to the
extent that the contribution may be protected, and believe they are
necessary to protect the IETF, the standards process and all IETF
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participants, and also because the IETF does not have the resources
or wherewithal to make any independent investigation as to the actual
proprietary status of any document submitted to it.
7. Inclusion of copyright notice
Section three above defines a copyright notice to be included on IETF
documents and in derivative works. The full copyright notice does
not need to be included in some specific types of derivative works:
a/ MIBs and similar material commonly extracted from IETF documents,
the following copyright notice should be included in the body of
the material that will be extracted "Portions Copyright (C) The
Internet Society (year)."
b/ short excerpts of IETF documents presented in electronic help
systems, for example, the descriptions for MIB variables
8. References
8.1 Normative references
[RFC 2026] Bradner, S.[ed], "The Internet Standards Process --
Revision 3", RFC 2026, October 1996
8.2 Informative references
[Berne] "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Work", http://www.wipo.int/treaties/ip/berne/index.html
[IETF IPR] work in progress: draft-iprwg-technology-00.txt
9. Editor's Address
Scott Bradner
Harvard University
29 Oxford St.
Cambridge MA, 02138
sob@harvard.edu
+1 617 495 3864
10. Full copyright statement
Portions Copyright (C) The Internet Society (year). Except as set
forth below, authors retain all their rights.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
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others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for rights
in submissions defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/S HE
REPRESENTS (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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