Making RFC and Internet-Draft Boilerplate Less Conspicuous
draft-thomson-rswg-bottom-fluff-00

RFC Series Working Group                                      M. Thomson
Internet-Draft                                                   Mozilla
Intended status: Informational                               D. Schinazi
Expires: 24 January 2026                                          Google
                                                            23 July 2025

       Making RFC and Internet-Draft Boilerplate Less Conspicuous
                   draft-thomson-rswg-bottom-fluff-00

Abstract

   This document establishes a new policy for RFCs and Internet-Drafts
   that moves all the fluff (copyright notices and that sort of thing)
   to the bottom of documents.

1.  New Policy

   No one reads the legal shrink wrap.  All we do by forcing it under
   their noses is annoy them and waste their time.

   The IETF can better serve its audience by moving boilerplate in RFCs
   and Internet-Drafts to the bottom of documents.  This ensures that
   notices exist, but are minimally annoying.

2.  Security Considerations

   The obvious argument is that placement of notices is a security
   feature.  However, given the wide acceptance of the fact that
   security by obscurity is not an adequate defense, the use of
   obscurity to improve usability equally cannot be expected to degrade
   security.

3.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   The latest revision of this draft can be found at
   https://martinthomson.github.io/bottom-fluff/draft-thomson-rswg-
   bottom-fluff.html.  Status information for this document may be found
   at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-thomson-rswg-bottom-fluff/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the RFC Series Working
   Group Editorial Stream Working Group mailing list (mailto:rswg@rfc-
   editor.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/rswg/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/martinthomson/bottom-fluff.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   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."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 24 January 2026.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2025 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 (https://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.

Acknowledgments

   The Internet Protocol Mercenary Company (IPMC) are acknowledged for
   continuing their ongoing defense of the intellectual property in
   RFCs.

Authors' Addresses

   Martin Thomson
   Mozilla
   Email: mt@lowentropy.net

   David Schinazi
   Google
   Email: dschinazi.ietf@gmail.com