Network Working Group S. Bradner Internet-Draft Harvard University Editor January 2006 RFC 3978 Update Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html This Internet-Draft will expire on June 25, 2006. Abstract This document modifies "IETF Rights in Contributions" so that the IETF gets the right to permit extraction of material from RFCs, and the right to permit others to create derivative works outside the IETF process. It does not constrain how the IETF exercises those rights. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society. (2006) 1. Introduction Bradner [Page 1] Internet-Draft RFC 3978 Update January 2006 Currently the IETF requires that authors of contributions to the IETF grant to the IETF a limited set of non-exclusive rights and permissions to a document as part of the process of submitting the contribution. These rights and permissions are detailed in Section 3.3 of "IETF Rights in Contributions" (RFC 3978 - BCP 78) [RFC3978]. This memo updates this section of RFC 3978 to add the rights for the IETF to 1/ permit the extraction of material from RFCs for a wide range of uses, and 2/ permit the IETF to grant the right to develop derivative works in any venue, not limited to within the IETF Standards Process. The addition of these rights to those granted by Contributors under RFC 3978 starts with the publication of this memo as a RFC. This memo does not retroactively obtain these rights from Contributions that predate the publication of this memo as a RFC. 2. Extractions from RFCs Many people have expressed a desire to extract material from IETF RFCs for use in documentation, textbooks, on-line help systems, and for similar uses. In addition, some IETF RFCs contain MIBs and other types of program code that could be compiled. This document updates RFC RFC3978 to explicitly permit extracting material, without modification of the text or figures, for such uses. Non-substantive changes such as changes to fonts, and translations into languages other than English would be permitted. 2.1 New paragraph 3.3 (c) This memo replaces paragraph 3.3(a)(E) of RFC 3978 with the following: (E) to extract, copy, publish, display, distribute and incorporate into other works, for any purpose (and not limited to use within the IETF Standards Process), and to grant third parties perpetual and non-revocable sublicenses to do the same, any portion of the Contribution without modification (other than non-substantive modifications such as translation into languages other than English or compilation of source code statements into executable code), and further provided that the notices required by Sections 5.4 or 5.6 below, as applicable, are included. 2.2 Reformat a section of the old paragraph 3.3(a)(E) The patent disclaimer text at the end of 3.3(a)(E) really should apply to the entire license grant in 3.3(a), and not just the grant in subparagraph 3.3(a)(E). the following free-standing sentence is placed at the end of 3.3(a), separated by a carriage return and Bradner [Page 2] Internet-Draft RFC 3978 Update January 2006 space from (E): The licenses granted in this Section 3.3(a) shall not be deemed to grant any right under any patent, patent application or other similar intellectual property right disclosed by the Contributor under BCP 79. 2.3 Make clear the right to reprint RFCs Since the start of the RFC series third parties have been free to reproduce RFCs as-is or as translations. The permission to do so was not specifically noted in early RFCs (other than a note to say that the distribution of the RFC was unlimited). The copyright notice introduced with RFC 1602 specifically granted these permissions. But an unintended byproduct of the attempt in BCP 78 to simplify the copyright statement in published RFCs was the lack of of any specific statement of these permissions in the RFC copyright notice or in BCP 78. This memo adds the following paragraph to RFC 3978 Section 3.3. (F) to permit third parties to copy, publish, display and distribute the Contribution without modification, as part of a full, unmodified RFC and to permit third parties to translate the Contribution as part of a full, unmodified RFC into languages other than English, for any purpose, whether or not within the IETF Standards Process. Note, of course, that this language itself is not a grant FROM the IETF to any third party. Rather, it is a grant from the author to the IETF. 3. Right to authorize the development of derivative works Currently the IETF obtains from Contributors the right to prepare derivative within the IETF Standards Process. This is done in RFC 3978 Section 3.3 (a) (C). This memo proposes to modify that paragraph to grant the IETF the ability to authorize the preparation of derivative works without limiting such development to being done within the IETF Standards Process. This paragraph does not, by itself, grant any additional permissions outside of the IETF, but does empower the IETF to authorize the development of derivative works, outside of the IETF Standards Process. One example of where the IETF might grant such a right is the case where another standards development organization (SDO) wants to update or extend an IETF technology (which would normally be done by the SDO sending their requirements to the IETF) but the IETF no longer has a working group focused on the particular technology and the IETF does not have the interest to create a new working group. Bradner [Page 3] Internet-Draft RFC 3978 Update January 2006 3.1 Revised Section 3.3 (a) (C) This memo replaces RFC 3978 Section 3.3 (a) (C) with the following paragraph: (C) unless explicitly disallowed in the notices contained in a Contribution [as per Section 5.2 below], (1) to prepare derivative works (in addition to translations) that are based on or incorporate all or part of the Contribution or comment upon it, within the IETF Standards Process, and (2) on a case by case basis, to grant third parties the right to prepare derivative works of the Contribution outside of the IETF Standards Process and to copy, publish, display and distribute such derivative works outside the IETF Standards Process, subject to a requirement to properly acknowledge the IETF, whereby in each case the license to such derivative works does not grant any more rights than the license to the original Contribution, 4. References 4.1. Normative References [RFC 3978] Bradner, S., Ed., "IETF Rights in Contributions", BCP 78, RFC 3978, March 2005. 5. Editor's Address Scott Bradner Harvard University 29 Oxford St. Cambridge MA, 02138 Phone: +1 617 495 3864 EMail: sob@harvard.edu 6. Full copyright statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET Bradner [Page 4] Internet-Draft RFC 3978 Update January 2006 ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Intellectual Property The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. Acknowledgement Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Bradner [Page 5]