IETF Administrative Support Activity 2 G. Camarillo
Internet-Draft Ericsson
Obsoletes: 2031 (if approved) J. Livingood
Intended status: Informational Comcast
Expires: June 1, 2019 November 28, 2018
The Updated IETF-ISOC Relationship
draft-ietf-iasa2-rfc2031bis-00
Abstract
This document summarises the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) -
Internet Society (ISOC) relationship, following a major revision to
the structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) in
2018. The IASA was revised under a new "IASA 2.0" structure by the
IASA2 Working Group, which changed the IETF's administrative, legal,
and financial structure. As a result, it also changed the
relationship between the IETF and ISOC, which made it necessary to
revise RFC 2031.
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on June 1, 2019.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2018 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
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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Main Division of Responsibilities between IETF and ISOC . . . 3
3. Philosophical Relationship with ISOC . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. ISOC's Role in the IETF Standards Process . . . . . . . . . . 3
5. The IETF's Role in ISOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. Legal Relationship with ISOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
7. Financial and Administrative Relationship with ISOC . . . . . 4
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
9. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
11. Changes from Previous Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
12. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Introduction and History
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the body that is
responsible for the development and maintenance of the Internet
Standards. The IETF is primarily a volunteer organization. Its
driving force is a group of dedicated high-quality engineers from all
over the world. In a structure of working groups, these engineers
exchange ideas and experience, and through discussion and
collaboration (both electronically and face-to-face) they strive to
achieve rough consensus and implement the standards through running
code.
The growth of the Internet over several decades also led to the
growth of the IETF. More and more people, organizations, and
companies rely on Internet Standards. Non-technical issues, such as
legal, administrative, and financial issues had long been an
undesirable but unavoidable part of the IETF. To address these
issues in 1995 the IETF established the Poised95 Working Group. Its
goal was to structure and document the IETF processes in order to
maximize the flexibility and freedom of IETF engineers so that they
could work in the way the IETF had always been most successful and to
honour the IETF credo: "Rough consensus and running code".
The Poised95 Working Group concluded that the Internet Society
(ISOC), which was formed in 1992, was the best organization to handle
all of these legal, administrative, and financial tasks on behalf of
and in close cooperation with the IETF. This led to documenting
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things such as the IETF standards process [RFC2026], the IETF
organizational structure [RFC2028], the IETF Nominating Committee
(NomCom) procedures [RFC2282], and the IETF-ISOC relationship
[RFC2031].
As time passed and operational experience accumulated, additional
structure was necessary. As a result, the Internet Administrative
Support Activity (IASA) was defined in 2005 and documented in
[RFC4071] and [RFC4371].
In 2018, the IASA was revised under a new "IASA 2.0" structure by the
IASA2 Working Group, which made signifincant revisions to the IETF's
administrative, legal, and financial structure. One critical outcome
was that the formation, in close cooperation between the IETF and
ISOC, of the IETF Administration Limited Liability Company (IETF LLC)
as a disregarded entity of ISOC.
As a result of the the IASA 2.0 structure [I-D.ietf-iasa2-struct] and
formation of the IETF LLC, the relationship between the IETF and ISOC
has changed. This document summarises the current state of the IETF
- ISOC relationship at a high level and replaces [RFC2031].
2. Main Division of Responsibilities between IETF and ISOC
The IETF remains responsible for the development and quality of the
Internet Standards. The Internet Society will aid the IETF by
facilitating legal and organizational issues as described below.
Apart from the roles described below, the IETF and ISOC acknowledge
that ISOC has no influence whatsoever on the technical content of
Internet Standards.
3. Philosophical Relationship with ISOC
ISOC and the IETF have historically been philosophically aligned.
ISOC's connection with the IETF community has always played an
important role in its policy work. ISOC has always been an advocate
for multistakeholder processes, which include the technical
community. Open standards are an explicit part of one of the focus
areas in ISOC's mission: Advancing the development and application of
Internet infrastructure, technologies, and open standards.
4. ISOC's Role in the IETF Standards Process
ISOC plays a small role in the IETF standards process. In
particular, ISOC assists the standards process by appointing the IETF
NomCom chair and by confirming IAB candidates who are put forward by
the IETF NomCom, as described in [RFC7437], and by acting as the last
resort in the appeals process, as describes in [RFC2026].
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5. The IETF's Role in ISOC
The IETF plays a role in the governance of ISOC. Per ISOC's by-laws,
the IETF appoints a set of trustees to the ISOC Board. The process
by which the IETF makes those appointments is defined in [RFC3677].
6. Legal Relationship with ISOC
The IETF LLC was organized as a "disregarded entity" of ISOC. This
means it operates as a branch or division of ISOC for tax purposes.
ISOC operates as a U.S. 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, and
was founded to support and promote the development of the Internet as
a global technical infrastructure, a resource to enrich people's
lives, and a force for good in society. The Limited Liability
Company Agreement of IETF Administration LLC, dated August 27 2018,
is the Operating Agreement that governs the relationship between the
IETF LLC and ISOC.
As a result of the creation of the IETF LLC, the IETF now has its own
legal umbrella. This IETF LLC structure now covers the IETF
standards and IETF standards process, all IETF officers (IAB, IESG,
Nomcom, and WG chairs), IETF employees and contractors, the RFC
series and RFC editor, etc.
The IETF Trust, documented in [RFC5378], and updated in
[I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale] and [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update],
provides legal protection for the RFC series of documents and other
aspects of the IETF. This includes things such as protection for
trademarks, copyrights, and intellectual property rights. As part of
the IETF Trust arrangement, IETF standards documents can be freely
downloaded, copied, and distributed without financial or other
distribution restrictions, though all rights to change these
documents lie with the IETF. The IETF Trust also provides legal
protection in case of disputes over intellectual property rights and
other rights.
7. Financial and Administrative Relationship with ISOC
Under the terms of the Operating Agreement between ISOC and the IETF,
ISOC has agreed to provide some funding support for the IETF (ISOC
has historically provided the IETF with significant financial
support). The IETF LLC will be responsible for creating and managing
an annual operating budget for the IETF, for fund raising, for
maintaining a bank account, and so on. The IETF LLC is managed by a
board of directors, one of whom is appointed by ISOC. The intention
is that ISOC and the IETF LLC operate at arms length.
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Under the new IASA 2.0 structure, the IETF is solely responsible for
its administration via the IETF LLC, IETF Trust, IAB, IESG, IETF
working groups, and other IETF processes. A further exploration of
this can be found in Section 4 of [I-D.ietf-iasa2-struct].
8. Security Considerations
This document introduces no new security considerations.
[RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon publication.]
9. Privacy Considerations
This document introduces no new privacy considerations.
[RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon publication.]
10. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Erik Huizer for his contribution as
the author of [RFC2031], which this document replaces.
11. Changes from Previous Versions
RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon publication.
-00: Initial version published
12. Informative References
[I-D.ietf-iasa2-struct]
Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Record of
Proposed Structure of the IETF Administrative Support
Activity (IASA), Version 2.0", draft-ietf-iasa2-struct-06
(work in progress), September 2018.
[I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale]
Arkko, J., "Discussion of the IASA 2.0 Changes as They
Relate to the IETF Trust", draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-
rationale-03 (work in progress), October 2018.
[I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update]
Arkko, J. and T. Hardie, "Update to the Process for
Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust", draft-ietf-
iasa2-trust-update-02 (work in progress), October 2018.
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[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, DOI 10.17487/RFC2026, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2026>.
[RFC2028] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in
the IETF Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 2028,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2028, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2028>.
[RFC2031] Huizer, E., "IETF-ISOC relationship", RFC 2031,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2031, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2031>.
[RFC2282] Galvin, J., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and
Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall
Committees", RFC 2282, DOI 10.17487/RFC2282, February
1998, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2282>.
[RFC3677] Daigle, L., Ed. and Internet Architecture Board, "IETF
ISOC Board of Trustee Appointment Procedures", BCP 77,
RFC 3677, DOI 10.17487/RFC3677, December 2003,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3677>.
[RFC4071] Austein, R., Ed. and B. Wijnen, Ed., "Structure of the
IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)", BCP 101,
RFC 4071, DOI 10.17487/RFC4071, April 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4071>.
[RFC4371] Carpenter, B., Ed. and L. Lynch, Ed., "BCP 101 Update for
IPR Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, DOI 10.17487/RFC4371,
January 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4371>.
[RFC5378] Bradner, S., Ed. and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights
Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5378, November 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5378>.
[RFC7437] Kucherawy, M., Ed., "IAB, IESG, and IAOC Selection,
Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the
Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP 10, RFC 7437,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7437, January 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7437>.
Authors' Addresses
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Gonzalo Camarillo
Ericsson
Email: Gonzalo.Camarillo@ericsson.com
Jason Livingood
Comcast
Email: jason_livingood@comcast.com
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