Network Working Group S. Bradner, Ed. Request for Comments: 5378 Harvard University BCP: 78 J. Contreras, Ed. Obsoletes: 3978, 4748 WilmerHale Updates: 2026 November 2008 Category: Best Current Practice Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust Status of This Memo This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. 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 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. Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 1] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008 Table of Contents 1. Definitions .....................................................3 2. Introduction ....................................................5 2.1. No Retroactive Effect ......................................5 3. Exposition of Why These Procedures Are the Way They Are .........6 3.1. Rights Granted in Contributions ............................6 3.2. Rights to Use Contributions ................................6 3.3. Right to Produce Derivative Works ..........................6 3.4. Rights to Use Trademarks ...................................8 3.5. Contributions Not Subject to Copyright .....................8 3.6. Copyright in RFCs ..........................................9 4. Non-IETF Documents ..............................................9 5. Rights in Contributions .........................................9 5.1. General Policy .............................................9 5.2. Confidentiality Obligations ...............................10 5.3. Rights Granted by Contributors to the IETF Trust ..........10 5.4. Sublicenses by the IETF Trust .............................11 5.5. No Patent License .........................................11 5.6. Representations and Warranties ............................11 5.7. No Duty to Publish ........................................12 5.8. Trademarks ................................................12 5.9. Copyright in RFCs .........................................12 5.10. Contributors' Retention of Rights ........................12 6. Legends, Notices and Other Standardized Text in IETF Documents ......................................................13 7. Security Considerations ........................................13 8. References .....................................................14 8.1. Normative References ......................................14 8.2. Informative References ....................................14 9. Acknowledgments ................................................15 10. Changes since RFC 3978 ........................................15 11. Declaration from the IAB ......................................16 Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 2] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008 1. Definitions The following definitions are for terms used in the context of this document. Other terms, including "IESG", "ISOC", "IAB", and "RFC Editor" are defined in [RFC2028]. a. "Contribution": any submission to the IETF intended by the Contributor for publication as all or part of an Internet-Draft or RFC (except for RFC Editor Contributions described in Section 4 below) and any statement made within the context of an IETF activity. Such statements include oral statements in IETF sessions as well as written and electronic communications, made at any time or place, that are addressed to: o the IETF plenary session, o any IETF working group or portion thereof, o any Birds of a Feather (BOF) session, o the IESG, or any member thereof on behalf of the IESG, o the IAB, or any member thereof on behalf of the IAB, o any IETF mailing list, including the IETF list itself, any working group or design team list, or any other list functioning under IETF auspices, o the RFC Editor or the Internet-Drafts function (except for RFC Editor Contributions, as described in Section 4 below). Statements made outside of an IETF session, mailing list, or other function, that are clearly not intended to be input to an IETF activity, group, or function are not IETF Contributions in the context of this document. b. "Contributor": an individual submitting a Contribution. c. "Indirect Contributor": any person who has materially or substantially contributed to a Contribution without being personally involved in its submission to the IETF. d. "Copyright": the legal right granted to an author in a document or other work of authorship under applicable law. A "copyright" is not equivalent to a "right to copy". Rather a copyright encompasses all of the exclusive rights that an author has in a work, such as the rights to copy, publish, distribute and create derivative works of the work. An author often cedes these rights to his or her employer or other parties as a condition of employment or compensation. e. "IETF": in the context of this document, the IETF includes all individuals who participate in meetings, working groups, mailing lists, functions, and other activities that are organized or Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 3] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008 initiated by ISOC, the IESG, or the IAB under the general designation of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), but solely to the extent of such participation. f. "IETF Documents": RFCs and Internet-Drafts that are used in the IETF Standards Process as defined in 1(g). This is identical to the "IETF stream" defined in [RFC4844]. g. "IETF Standards Process": the activities undertaken by the IETF in any of the settings described in 1(a) above. h. "IETF Trust": a trust established under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA, in order to hold and administer intellectual property rights for the benefit of the IETF. i. "Internet-Draft": temporary documents used in the IETF Standards Process. Internet-Drafts are posted on the IETF web site by the IETF Secretariat. As noted in Section 2.2 of RFC 2026, Internet- Drafts have a nominal maximum lifetime of six months in the IETF Secretariat's public directory. j. "Legend Instructions": the standardized text that is maintained by the IETF Trust and is included in IETF Documents and the instructions and requirements for including that standardized text in IETF Documents. The text and instructions are posted from time to time at http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info. k. "RFC": the publication series used by the IETF among others. RFCs are published by the RFC Editor. Although RFCs may be superseded in whole or in part by subsequent RFCs, the text of an RFC is not altered once published in RFC form. (See [RFC2026] Section 2.1.) l. "Reasonably and personally known": something an individual knows personally or, because of the job the individual holds, would reasonably be expected to know. This wording is used to indicate that an organization cannot purposely keep an individual in the dark about certain information just to avoid the disclosure requirement. m. "Non-IETF documents": Internet-Drafts that are submitted to the RFC Editor independently of the IETF Standards Process. (See Section 4.) Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 4] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008 2. Introduction In all matters of copyright and document procedures, the intent is to benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others. Under the laws of most countries and current international treaties (for example the "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Work" [Berne]), authors obtain numerous rights in the works they produce automatically upon producing them. These rights include copyrights, moral rights, and other rights. In many cases, if the author produces a work within the scope of his or her employment, most of those rights are usually assigned to the employer, either by operation of law or, in many cases, under contract. (The Berne Convention names some rights as "inalienable", which means that the author retains them in all cases.) In order for Contributions to be used within the IETF Standards Process, including when they are published as Internet-Drafts or RFCs, certain limited rights must be granted to the IETF Trust, which then grants the necessary rights to the IETF. In addition, Contributors must make representations to the IETF Trust and the IETF regarding their ability to grant these rights. Section 1 provides definitions used in these policies. Sections 3 and 4 of this document explain the rationale for these provisions. Sections 1, 2, 5, and 6 of this document are normative, the other sections are informative. RFC 3979 (BCP 79) [RFC3979] deals with rights, including possible patent rights, in technologies developed or specified as part of the IETF Standards Process. This document is not intended to address those issues. This memo obsoletes RFCs 3978 [RFC3978] and 4748 [RFC4748] and, with RFC 3979 (BCP 79) and [RFC5377], replaces Section 10 of RFC 2026 [RFC2026]. This document is not intended as legal advice. Readers are advised to consult their own legal advisors if they would like a legal interpretation of their rights or the rights of the IETF Trust [RFC4371] in any Contributions they make. 2.1. No Retroactive Effect This memo does not retroactively obtain additional rights from Contributions that predate the date that the IETF Trust announces the adoption of these procedures. Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 5] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008 3. Exposition of Why These Procedures Are the Way They Are 3.1. Rights Granted in Contributions The IETF Trust and the IETF must obtain the right to publish an IETF Contribution as an RFC or an Internet-Draft from the Contributors. A primary objective of this policy is to obtain from the document authors only the non-exclusive rights that are needed to develop and publish IETF Documents and to use IETF Contributions in the IETF Standards Process and potentially elsewhere. The authors retain all other rights, but cannot withdraw the above rights from the IETF Trust and the IETF. It is important to note that under this document, Contributors are required to grant certain rights to the IETF Trust (see Section 5.3.), which holds all IETF-related intellectual property on behalf of the IETF community. The IETF Trust will, in turn, grant a sublicense of these rights to all IETF participants for use in the IETF Standards Process (see Section 5.4.). This sublicense is necessary for the standards development work of the IETF to continue. In addition, the IETF Trust may grant certain other sublicenses of the rights that it is granted under this document. In granting such other sublicenses, the IETF Trust will be guided and bound by documents such as [RFC5377]. 3.2. Rights to Use Contributions It is important that the IETF receive assurances from all Contributors that they have the authority to grant the IETF the rights that they claim to grant because, under the laws of most countries and applicable international treaties, copyright rights come into existence when a work of authorship is created (but see Section 3.5 below regarding pub…