Procedures for Rights Handling in the RFC Independent Submission Stream
RFC 5744

• Status
• IESG evaluation record
• IESG writeups
• Email expansions
• History

• Versions
• 02

Network Working Group                                          R. Braden
Request for Comments: 5744                                           ISI
Updates: 4846                                                 J. Halpern
Category: Informational                                         Ericsson
                                                           December 2009

                   Procedures for Rights Handling in
                 the RFC Independent Submission Stream

Abstract

   This document specifies the procedures by which authors of RFC
   Independent Submission 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 memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

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
   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.

Braden & Halpern             Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 5744           Rights for Independent Submissions      December 2009

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   2.  Background  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   3.  Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   4.  Rules for Submission and Use of Material  . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5.  Procedures Requested of the IETF Trust  . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   6.  Patent and Trademark Rules for the Independent Submission
       Stream  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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 copyright procedures for RFC Independent
   Submission documents.  It parallels the procedures for IETF-produced
   documents defined in [RFC5377] and [RFC5378].

   In summary, submissions in the Independent Submission 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 Submission documents, and it explicitly requests the IETF
   Trust to manage the rights in accordance with this advice.

   This document also specifies the policies regarding the disclosure of
   Patents and Trademarks that may be relevant to a submission intended
   for the Independent Submission stream.

2.  Background

   The concept of RFC streams in general, and the Independent Submission
   stream in particular, are described in Section 5 of [RFC4844] and in
   RFC 4846 [RFC4846].  In general terms, the Independent Submission
   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

Braden & Halpern             Informational                      [Page 2]
RFC 5744           Rights for Independent Submissions      December 2009

   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 [RFC5620], the IETF began a process shift in
   which the responsibility for Independent Submission 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.

3.  Goals

   The goal of the RFC Independent Submission stream 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 Submission documents.  Therefore, the
   Independent Submission 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 Submission documents permit no
   derivative works.

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

Braden & Halpern             Informational                      [Page 3]
RFC 5744           Rights for Independent Submissions      December 2009

4.  Rules for Submission and Use of Material

   Independent Submission 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 Submission stream will
   grant rights as described in [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
   Independent Submission Editor, the Trust grants to readers and users
   of material from Independent Submission documents the right to make
   unlimited derivative works, unless the document specifies that no
   derivative works are permitted.  This will permit anyone to copy,
   extract, modify, or otherwise use material from Independent
   Submission documents 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 Submission 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.

Braden & Halpern             Informational                      [Page 4]
RFC 5744           Rights for Independent Submissions      December 2009

   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
   Submission stream are expected to use the IETF Internet-Draft
   process, complying therein with the rules specified in the latest
   version of BCP 9, whose version at the time of writing was [RFC2026].
   This includes the disclosure of Patent and Trademark issues that are
   known, or can be reasonably expected to be known, by 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 [RFC3979], updated by [RFC4879].
   The Independent Submission 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 Submission documents.  Terms that do not require fees or
   licensing are preferable.  Non-discriminatory terms are strongly
   preferred over those that discriminate among users.  However,
   although disclosure is required, there are no specific requirements
   on the licensing terms for intellectual property related to
   Independent Submission publication.

7.  Security Considerations

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

8.  References

8.1.  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.

Braden & Halpern             Informational                      [Page 5]
RFC 5744           Rights for Independent Submissions      December 2009

   [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.

8.2.  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

Braden & Halpern             Informational                      [Page 6]