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
  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.





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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.




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  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.





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  [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: [email protected]


  Joel M. Halpern
  Ericsson
  P. O. Box 6049
  Leesburg, VA  20178
  US

  EMail: [email protected]












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