]> Clarification of Derivative Works Restrictions
San Francisco CA United States of America sayrer@gmail.com
The University of Auckland
School of Computer Science The University of Auckland PB 92019 Auckland 1142 New Zealand brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com
GEN Network Working Group derivative This document clarifies that only IETF Documents may contain legal limitations on derivative works. About This Document Status information for this document may be found at . Discussion of this document takes place on the ipr-wg Working Group mailing list (), which is archived at . Subscribe at .
Introduction This document updates Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust in order to clarify and limit which contributions may include a restriction on derivative rights.
Conventions and Definitions This document uses the terminology defined in .
Derivative Works Section 1 of defines "Contribution", a "Contributor" and "IETF Documents". Sections 5.3 and 6 of RFC 5378 describe an optional mechanism for a Contributor to limit derivative works rights with a notice in the Contribution. This optional mechanism has sometimes been misconstrued as applying to all Contributions. Using this mechanism outside of specifications, for example, in electronic mail, makes it difficult for people to respond and inhibits collaboration. This behavior impedes the very idea of collaborating about the Internet over the Internet. The IESG has previously issued a statement on this topic . This document clarifies with normative effect that RFC 5378 permits the use of this mechanism only for the text of IETF Documents, i.e., RFCs or Internet-Drafts that are used in the IETF Standards Process. Question for legal review: Which of the following two alternative sentences would be more effective and less problematic for participants? Version 1: Derivative works restrictions may not be applied to other Contributions, such as but not limited to public online IETF fora as defined in , appeals, minutes, or audio or video recordings of IETF meetings. Version 2: Derivative works restrictions attached to other Contributions, such as but not limited to public online IETF fora as defined in , appeals, minutes, or audio or video recordings of IETF meetings, have no validity and should be ignored by all IETF participants. All other rights Contributors provide to the IETF Trust/ICMP remain in place.
Security Considerations This document has no direct impact on Internet security.
IANA Considerations This document has no IANA actions.
References Normative References Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust The IETF policies about rights in Contributions to the IETF are designed to ensure that such Contributions can be made available to the IETF and Internet communities while permitting the authors to retain as many rights as possible. This memo details the IETF policies on rights in Contributions to the IETF. It also describes the objectives that the policies are designed to meet. This memo obsoletes RFCs 3978 and 4748 and, with BCP 79 and RFC 5377, replaces Section 10 of RFC 2026. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. IETF Community Moderation The IETF community will treat people with kindness and grace, but not endless patience. This memo obsoletes RFCs 3683 and 3934, and it updates RFCs 2418 and 9245 by establishing a policy for the moderation of disruptive participation across the IETF's various public contribution channels and discussion fora. It establishes guardrails for moderation and a moderator team. That team will develop a set of moderation procedures and facilitate their consistent implementation with chairs and administrators. Informative References IESG Statement on Clarifying Derivative Works Rights IESG
Change Log [RFC Editor, please remove]
Draft-00
  • Original version
Draft-01
  • Added author, expanded argument
Draft-02
  • Removed pointless sentence
Draft-03
  • Significant rewording
Draft-04
  • Update after IETF 126 discussion
Draft-05
  • Sharpened definitions taken from RFC5378
  • Avoided paraphrasing IESG statement
  • Added explicit "ban vs ignore" choice
  • Added explicit legal query
Acknowledgements Helpful comments were made by Jay Daley, Roman Danyliw, Stephen Farrell, Joel Halpern, Christian Huitema, John Klensin, Eliot Lear, John Levine, Rich Salz, Paul Wouters, ...