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

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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.

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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

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   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