RFC 5745

Procedures for Rights Handling in the RFC IAB Stream

📅 published December 2009, from ietf

RFC 5745: Procedures for Rights Handling in the RFC IAB Stream 🎀

Okay bestie, here's the header info you need up front 💅

  • Network Working Group 🌸
  • Author: A. Malis, Ed., writing for the IAB ✨
  • Date: December 2009 🗓️
  • Category: Informational (it's info, not a standard) 🧚
  • Updates: RFC 4846 🔁
  • Obsoletes: nothing is listed in the header 🙌

Abstract ✨

Okay so this doc is all about the copyright rules for RFCs in the IAB stream. Authors give the community "incoming" rights to copy and use their text. Then the community gives readers and users "outgoing" rights, and this doc asks the IETF Trust to manage those outgoing rights so it all works out 🫶

Status of This Memo 📝

This memo gives information to the Internet community. It is NOT a standard of any kind, just so we're clear 💜 Distribution of this memo is unlimited 🌈

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) as they stand on the date this document was published. Please read these carefully, bestie, because they describe your rights and restrictions for this document 👀 Code Components pulled out of this document must include Simplified BSD License text, as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions. They're also provided without warranty, as described in the BSD License ⚠️

Table of Contents 🗂️

1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.  Background  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.  Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.  Rules for Submission and Use of Material  . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.  Procedures Requested of the IETF Trust  . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.  Patent and Trademark Rules for the IAB Stream . . . . . . . . . 4
7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
10. IAB Members at the Time of This Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1. Introduction ✨

As the IETF has grown, it has gotten way more careful about defining the rights that authors give the community when copying documents, and the rights the community gives back to readers and users. The IETF Trust [RFC4371] manages intellectual property rights (IPR), and that role has made it even more important to be explicit about these rights and decisions 💅

This document defines the copyright procedures for RFC IAB stream documents. It parallels the procedures for IETF-produced documents defined in RFC 5377 [RFC5377] and RFC 5378 [RFC5378] 🎀

Here's the summary: submissions in the IAB stream use the same submission procedures and mechanisms defined in RFC 5378, so they need the same "incoming rights" as IETF-stream documents 🔥 This document gives advice to the Trustees of the IETF Trust on the "outgoing" rights to grant to readers and users of IAB stream documents, and it explicitly asks the IETF Trust to manage those rights according to this advice 🫶

This document also lays out the policies for disclosing Patents and Trademarks that might be relevant to a submission intended for the IAB stream 👑

2. Background 🌸

The idea of RFC streams in general, and the IAB stream in particular, is explained in Section 5 of RFC 4844 [RFC4844] 📚

Section 8 of RFC 4846 [RFC4846] set out the copyright rules for the Independent Submission stream. This document is meant to be fully consistent with that section, and it updates it by clarifying the formal procedures the IETF Trust will use to make those rules happen. Basically, the goal is to make the copyright rules for IAB stream documents identical to the ones for Independent Submission stream documents 💖

3. Goals 🎯

The whole point of the IAB stream is to publish information from the IAB to the Internet community ✨ Following the principle stated for the Independent Submission stream in Section 8 of RFC 4846, the best way to hit this goal is a liberal copyright policy on IAB stream documents 🌈 So the IAB stream policy lets any individual reading these documents use the content in any manner. The only restriction is that proper credit ("attribution") must be given. Lawyers call this liberal policy "unlimited derivative works" 🦋 The only additional restriction for using IAB documents is also that proper credit ("attribution") must be given.

Now, for a small subset of documents published in the IAB stream, like output from other standards bodies, unlimited derivative works just isn't reasonable 😭 In those cases, authors are allowed to request that the published IAB stream documents permit no derivative works.

Also, this unlimited derivative works policy covers every part of an IAB stream document, including any code. So no separate licensing procedure is needed for pulling out and adapting code from an IAB stream document submitted under the (preferred) unlimited derivative works terms 💅 On the other hand, code may not be extracted and adapted from IAB stream documents submitted under the "no derivative works" terms 🙈

4. Rules for Submission and Use of Material 💅

IAB stream authors will submit their material as Internet-Drafts. These drafts will be submitted to and stored in the IETF Internet-Drafts repository, the same way as regular IETF Internet-Drafts 📝

When they submit an Internet-Draft, authors who plan to submit their document for the IAB stream will grant rights as described in [RFC5378]. If the contributor wants the contribution published as an RFC that permits no derivative works, they may use the form specified for RFC 5378 🎀

The IETF Trust will publish rules saying that the Trust grants readers and users of material from IAB stream RFCs the right to make unlimited derivative works, unless the RFC says no derivative works are permitted. This means anyone can copy, extract, modify, or otherwise use material from IAB stream RFCs, as long as suitable attribution is given 🦋

Contributors of Internet-Drafts intended for the IAB stream will include the appropriate boilerplate defined by the IETF Trust. This boilerplate shall indicate compliance with RFC 5378, and it 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 🌸

5. Procedures Requested of the IETF Trust 👑

The IAB asks the IETF Trust and its Trustees to help meet the goals and procedures in this document 🫶

The Trustees are asked to publicly confirm that they're willing and able to take responsibility for the Intellectual Property Rights for the IAB stream ✨

Specifically, the Trustees are asked to develop the boilerplate needed to mark documents properly, so the IETF Trust receives the rights specified in RFC 5378. These procedures also need to let authors indicate either no rights to make derivative works, or, preferably, the right to make unlimited derivative works from the documents. It's left to the Trust to specify exactly how this gets clearly indicated in each document 💖

6. Patent and Trademark Rules for the IAB Stream 🦋

As said above, contributors of documents for the IAB stream are expected to use the IETF Internet-Draft process, and follow the rules in the latest version of BCP 9, which was [RFC2026] at the time of writing. This includes disclosing Patent and Trademark issues that are known, or can reasonably be expected to be known, to the contributor 🔍

Disclosing 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 writing was [RFC3979], updated by [RFC4879]. The IAB stream uses the IETF's IPR disclosure mechanism, www.ietf.org/ipr/, for this 💜 The IAB would prefer the most liberal terms possible for IAB stream documents. Terms that don't require fees or licensing are preferable. Non-discriminatory terms are strongly preferred over terms that discriminate among users 🌈 Still, disclosure is required, and the IAB may consider disclosures and terms when deciding whether to submit a document for publication. But there are no specific requirements on the licensing terms for intellectual property related to IAB stream publication 🧚

7. Security Considerations 💀

The integrity and quality of the IAB stream are the responsibility of the IAB. This document does not change those responsibilities. Dramatic, I know, but this is the one part of the doc that's all about who's on the hook for keeping the stream trustworthy 🙏

8. References 📚

8.1. Normative References

[RFC2026]  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
           3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

[RFC3979]  Bradner, S., Ed., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
           Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.

[RFC4371]   Carpenter, B., Ed., and L. Lynch, Ed., "BCP 101 Update
           for IPR Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, January 2006.

[RFC4844]  Daigle, L., Ed., and Internet Architecture Board, "The RFC
           Series and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007.

[RFC4846]  Klensin, J., Ed., and D. Thaler, Ed., "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., Ed., and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights
           Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378,
           November 2008.

8.2. Informative References

[RFC5377]  Halpern, J., Ed., "Advice to the Trustees of the IETF
           Trust on Rights to Be Granted in IETF Documents", RFC
           5377, November 2008.

[RFC5744]  Braden, R. and J. Halpern, "Procedures for Rights Handling
           in the RFC Independent Submission Stream", RFC 5744,
           December 2009.

9. Acknowledgements 🫶

The author says most of the text in this document came from [RFC5744], and wants to thank the authors of that document 💖

10. IAB Members at the Time of This Writing 🌈

Marcelo Bagnulo
Gonzalo Camarillo
Stuart Cheshire
Vijay Gill
Russ Housley
John Klensin
Olaf Kolkman
Gregory Lebovitz
Andrew Malis
Danny McPherson
David Oran
Jon Peterson
Dave Thaler

Author's Address 🧚

Andrew G. Malis
Verizon Communications
117 West St.
Waltham, MA 02451
USA

EMail: andrew.g.malis@verizon.com


IAB

EMail: iab@iab.org
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