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+Network Working Group J. Halpern, Ed.
+Request for Comments: 5377 Self
+Category: Informational November 2008
+
+
+ Advice to the Trustees of the IETF Trust
+ on Rights to Be Granted in IETF Documents
+
+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) 2008 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.
+
+Abstract
+
+ Contributors grant intellectual property rights to the IETF. The
+ IETF Trust holds and manages those rights on behalf of the IETF. The
+ Trustees of the IETF Trust are responsible for that management. This
+ management includes granting the licenses to copy, implement, and
+ otherwise use IETF Contributions, among them Internet-Drafts and
+ RFCs. The Trustees of the IETF Trust accepts direction from the IETF
+ regarding the rights to be granted. This document describes the
+ desires of the IETF regarding outbound rights to be granted in IETF
+ Contributions.
+
+
+
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+
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+Halpern Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 5377 Outbound Rights Advice November 2008
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+ 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
+ 2. Purpose in Granting Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
+ 3. Powers and Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
+ 4. Recommended Grants of Right to Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
+ 4.1. Rights Granted for Reproduction of RFCs . . . . . . . . . . 5
+ 4.2. Rights Granted for Quoting from IETF Contributions . . . . 5
+ 4.3. Rights Granted for Implementing Based on IETF
+ Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
+ 4.4. Rights Granted for Use of Text from IETF Contributions . . 6
+ 4.5. Additional Licenses for IETF Contributions . . . . . . . . 6
+ 5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
+ 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
+ 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
+ 7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
+ 7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
+
+1. Introduction
+
+ Under the current operational and administrative structures, IETF
+ intellectual property rights are vested in the IETF Trust
+ administered by a board of trustees made up of the members of the
+ IAOC [RFC4371]. This includes the right to make use of IETF
+ Contributions, as granted by Contributors under the rules laid out in
+ [RFC5378]. The Trustees of the IETF Trust are therefore responsible
+ for defining the rights to copy granted by the IETF to people who
+ wish to make use of the material in these documents.
+
+ For consistency and clarity, this document uses the same terminology
+ laid out in [RFC5378] and uses the same meanings as defined in that
+ document.
+
+ The IETF Trust, by way of its Trustees, has indicated, as is
+ consistent with the IETF structure, that it will respect the wishes
+ of the IETF in regard to what these granted rights ought to be. It
+ is therefore the IETF's responsibility to articulate those wishes.
+ This document represents the wishes of the IETF regarding the rights
+ granted to all users in regard to IETF Contributions, until it is
+ superseded.
+
+2. Purpose in Granting Rights
+
+ In providing a description of the wishes of the IETF with regard to
+ rights granted in RFCs, it is helpful to keep in mind the purpose of
+ granting such rights.
+
+
+
+
+
+Halpern Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 5377 Outbound Rights Advice November 2008
+
+
+ The mission of the IETF is to produce documents that make the
+ Internet work better (see [RFC3935] for more details). These
+ documents, when completed, are published as RFCs.
+
+ An important subclass of RFCs is standards describing protocols; for
+ these, the primary value to the Internet is the ability of
+ implementors to build solutions (products, software, etc.) that
+ interoperate using these standards. Hence, the IETF has a strong
+ interest in seeing accurate, interoperable implementations of the
+ material the IETF publishes. The IETF Trust grants rights to copy to
+ people to make use of the text in the RFCs in order to encourage
+ accurate and interoperable implementations.
+
+ As early implementations from Internet-Drafts make use of
+ descriptions in those Internet-Drafts, similar desires apply to
+ Internet-Drafts.
+
+ Similar considerations also apply to non-standard, non-protocol
+ documents such as BCP (Best Current Practice) and Informational
+ documents; in this document, we recommend a common approach to the
+ issue of right-to-use licenses for all IETF documents.
+
+ Previous documents regarding rights in IETF documents have included
+ in the RFC text specific text to be used to achieve the stated goals.
+ This has proved problematic. When problems are found with such text,
+ even when the problem is not a change in intent, it is necessary to
+ revise the RFC to fix the problem. At best, this delays fixing legal
+ issues that need prompt attention. As such, this document describes
+ the IETF desires to the Trustees of the IETF Trust, but does not
+ provide the specific legal wording to address the goals. The
+ selection, and updating as necessary, of legal wording is left to the
+ Trustees of the IETF Trust. Appeals of the actions of the Trustees
+ of the IETF Trust are governed by other documents. As the Trustees
+ are the members of the IAOC, the appeals procedure documented in BCP
+ 101 (currently [RFC4371]) is applicable.
+
+3. Powers and Authority
+
+ As described in the introduction, and formally specified in
+ [RFC5378], the legal authority for determining and granting users
+ rights to copy material in RFCs and other IETF Contributions rests
+ with the Trustees for the IETF Trust, which is made up of the members
+ of the IAOC, as described in [RFC4071] and [RFC4371]. This document
+ provides guidance to that body, based on the rough consensus of the
+ IETF. The Trustees of the IETF Trust have the authority and
+ responsibility to determine the exact text insertions (or other
+ mechanisms), if any, needed in Internet-Drafts, RFCs, and all IETF
+
+
+
+
+Halpern Informational [Page 3]
+
+RFC 5377 Outbound Rights Advice November 2008
+
+
+ Contributions to meet these goals. The IETF Trust License Policy is
+ available from http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info.
+
+ The rough consensus described in this document reflects the agreement
+ of the IETF as of the IETF Last Call, and the Trustees of the IETF
+ Trust are to begin drafting license text and other materials to act
+ on these instructions upon IESG approval of this document for RFC
+ publication. Changes to the IETF documentation, and document
+ policies themselves, take effect as determined by the Trustees of the
+ IETF Trust.
+
+ This document does not specify what rights the IETF Trust receives
+ from others in IETF Contributions. That is left to another document
+ ([RFC5378]). While care has been taken by the working group in
+ developing this document, and care will be taken by the Trustees of
+ the IETF Trust, to see that sufficient rights are granted to the IETF
+ Trust in IETF Contributions, it is also the case that the Trust can
+ not grant rights it has not or does not receive, and it is expected
+ that policies will be in line with that fact. Similarly, the rights
+ granted for pre-existing documents can not be expanded unless the
+ holders of rights in those Contributions choose to grant expanded
+ rights. Nonetheless, to the degree it can, and without embarking on
+ a massive effort, it is desirable if similar rights to those
+ described below can be granted in older RFCs.
+
+4. Recommended Grants of Right to Copy
+
+ The IETF grants rights to copy and modify parts of IETF Contributions
+ in order to meet the objectives described earlier. As such,
+ different circumstances and different parts of documents may need
+ different grants. This section contains subsections for each such
+ different grant that is currently envisioned. Each section is
+ intended to describe a particular usage, to describe how that usage
+ is recognizable, and to provide guidance to the Trustees of the IETF
+ Trust as to what rights the IETF would like to see granted in that
+ circumstance and what limitations should be put on such granting.
+
+ These recommendations for outgoing rights are structured around the
+ assumptions documented in [RFC5378]. Thus, this document is about
+ granting rights derived from those granted to the IETF Trust. The
+ recommendations below are how those granted rights should in turn be
+ passed on to others using IETF documents in ways and for purposes
+ that fit with the goals of the IETF. This discussion is also
+ separate from discussion of the rights the IETF itself requires in
+ documents to do its job, as those are not "outbound" rights. It is
+ expected that the rights granted to the IETF will be a superset of
+ those copying rights we wish to grant to others.
+
+
+
+
+Halpern Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 5377 Outbound Rights Advice November 2008
+
+
+4.1. Rights Granted for Reproduction of RFCs
+
+ It has long been IETF policy to encourage copying of RFCs in full.
+ This permits wide dissemination of the material, without risking loss
+ of context or meaning. The IETF wishes to continue to permit anyone
+ to make full copies and translations of RFCs.
+
+4.2. Rights Granted for Quoting from IETF Contributions
+
+ There is rough consensus that it is useful to permit quoting without
+ modification of excerpts from IETF Contributions. Such excerpts may
+ be of any length and in any context. Translation of quotations is
+ also to be permitted. All such quotations should be attributed
+ properly to the IETF and the IETF Contribution from which they are
+ taken.
+
+4.3. Rights Granted for Implementing Based on IETF Contributions
+
+ IETF Contributions often include components intended to be directly
+ processed by a computer. Examples of these include ABNF definitions,
+ XML Schemas, XML DTDs, XML RelaxNG definitions, tables of values,
+ MIBs, ASN.1, and classical programming code. These are included in
+ IETF Contributions for clarity and precision in specification. It is
+ clearly beneficial, when such items are included in IETF
+ Contributions, to permit the inclusion of such code components in
+ products that implement the Contribution. It has been pointed out
+ that in several important contexts, use of such code requires the
+ ability to modify the code. One common example of this is simply the
+ need to adapt code for use in specific contexts (languages,
+ compilers, tool systems, etc.) Such use frequently requires some
+ changes to the text of the code from the IETF Contribution. Another
+ example is that code included in open source products is frequently
+ licensed to permit any and all of the code to be modified. Since we
+ want this code included in such products, it follows that we need to
+ permit such modification. While there has been discussion of
+ restricting in some way the rights to make such modifications, the
+ rough consensus of the IETF is that such restrictions are likely a
+ bad idea, and are certainly very complex to define.
+
+ As such, the rough consensus is that the IETF Trust is to grant
+ rights such that code components of IETF Contributions can be
+ extracted, modified, and used by anyone in any way desired. To
+ enable the broadest possible extraction, modification, and usage, the
+ IETF Trust should avoid adding software license obligations beyond
+ those already present in a Contribution. The granted rights to
+ extract, modify, and use code should allow creation of derived works
+ outside the IETF that may carry additional license obligations. As
+ the IETF Trust can not grant rights it does not receive, the rights
+
+
+
+Halpern Informational [Page 5]
+
+RFC 5377 Outbound Rights Advice November 2008
+
+
+ to extract, modify, and use code described in this paragraph can not
+ be granted in IETF Contributions that are explicitly marked as not
+ permitting derivative works.
+
+ While it is up to the Trustees of the IETF Trust to determine the
+ best way of meeting this objective, two mechanisms are suggested here
+ that are believed to be helpful in documenting the intended grant to
+ readers and users of IETF Contributions.
+
+ Firstly, the Trustees of the IETF Trust should maintain, in a
+ suitable, easily accessible fashion, a list of common RFC components
+ that will be considered to be code. To start, this list should
+ include at least the items listed above. The Trustees of the IETF
+ Trust will add to this list as they deem suitable or as they are
+ directed by the IETF.
+
+ Additionally, the Trustees of the IETF Trust should define a textual
+ representation to be included in an IETF Contribution to indicate
+ that a portion of the document is considered by the authors (and
+ later, the working group, and upon approval, the IETF) to be code and
+ thus subject to the permissions granted to use code.
+
+4.4. Rights Granted for Use of Text from IETF Contributions
+
+ There is no consensus at this time to permit the use of text from
+ RFCs in contexts where the right to modify the text is required. The
+ authors of IETF Contributions may be able and willing to grant such
+ rights independently of the rights they have granted to the IETF by
+ making the Contribution.
+
+4.5. Additional Licenses for IETF Contributions
+
+ There have been contexts where the material in an IETF Contribution
+ is also available under other license terms. The IETF wishes to be
+ able to include content that is available under such licenses. It is
+ desirable to indicate in the IETF Contribution that other licenses
+ are available. It would be inappropriate and confusing if such
+ additional licenses restricted the rights the IETF intends to grant
+ in the content of RFCS.
+
+ However, the IETF does not wish to have IETF Contributions contain
+ additional licenses, as that introduces a number of additional
+ difficulties. Specifically, additional text in the document, and any
+ additional license referred to by permitted additional text, must not
+ in any way restrict the rights the IETF intends to grant to others
+ for using the contents of IETF Contributions.
+
+
+
+
+
+Halpern Informational [Page 6]
+
+RFC 5377 Outbound Rights Advice November 2008
+
+
+ Authors of Contributions retain all rights in their Contributions.
+ As such, an author may directly grant any rights they wish separately
+ from what the IETF grants. However, a reader wishing to determine or
+ make use of such grants will need to either consult external sources
+ of information, possibly including open source code and documents, or
+ contact the author directly.
+
+5. IANA Considerations
+
+ No values are assigned in this document, no registries are created,
+ and there is no action assigned to the IANA by this document. One
+ list (of kinds of code sections) is anticipated, to be created and
+ maintained by the Trustees of the IETF Trust. It is up to the
+ Trustees of the IETF Trust whether they create such a list and
+ whether they choose to involve the IANA in maintaining that list.
+
+6. Security Considerations
+
+ This document introduces no new security considerations. It is a
+ process document about the IETF's IPR rights being granted to other
+ people. While there may be attacks against the integrity or
+ effectiveness of the IETF processes, this document does not address
+ such issues.
+
+7. References
+
+7.1. Normative References
+
+ [RFC5378] Bradner, S., Ed. and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights
+ Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378,
+ November 2008.
+
+7.2. Informative References
+
+ [RFC3935] Alvestrand, H., "A Mission Statement for the IETF",
+ BCP 95, RFC 3935, October 2004.
+
+ [RFC4071] Austein, R. and B. Wijnen, "Structure of the IETF
+ Administrative Support Activity (IASA)", BCP 101,
+ RFC 4071, April 2005.
+
+ [RFC4371] Carpenter, B. and L. Lynch, "BCP 101 Update for IPR
+ Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, January 2006.
+
+
+
+
+
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+
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+Halpern Informational [Page 7]
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+RFC 5377 Outbound Rights Advice November 2008
+
+
+Author's Address
+
+ Joel M. Halpern (editor)
+ Self
+ P. O. Box 6049
+ Leesburg, VA 20178
+ US
+
+ EMail: jmh@joelhalpern.com
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