IETF Administrative Support Activity 2 G. Camarillo
Internet-Draft Ericsson
Obsoletes: 2031 (if approved) J. Livingood
Intended status: Informational Comcast
Expires: August 18, 2019 February 14, 2019
The IETF-ISOC Relationship
draft-ietf-iasa2-rfc2031bis-04
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 August 18, 2019.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2019 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
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Philosophical Relationship with ISOC . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Main Division of Responsibilities between IETF and ISOC . . . 3
4. ISOC's Role in the IETF Standards Process . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. The IETF's Role in ISOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. Legal Relationship with ISOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. Financial and Administrative Relationship with ISOC . . . . . 6
8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
10. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
11. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
12. Changes from Previous Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
13. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1. Introduction and History
The Internet Society provides a corporate home for the administrative
entity that supports the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the
Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and the Internet Research Task
Force (IRTF), and supports the work of these groups through a variety
of programs.
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
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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
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 significant revisions to the IETF's
administrative, legal, and financial structure. One critical outcome
was the formation, in close cooperation between the IETF and ISOC, of
the IETF Administration Limited Liability Company (IETF LLC) as a
subsidiary of ISOC.
As a result of the the IASA 2.0 structure [I-D.ietf-iasa2-rfc4071bis]
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. 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.
3. Main Division of Responsibilities between IETF and ISOC
The IETF remains responsible for the development and quality of the
Internet Standards. Apart from the roles described below, the IETF
and ISOC acknowledge that ISOC has no influence whatsoever on the
technical content of Internet Standards.
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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 described in [RFC2026].
ISOC maintains liaison relationships and memberships in other
Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and related organizations,
which directly benefits the IETF. For example, ISOC is a Sector
Member of the ITU-T. As a result, ISOC delegates are afforded the
same rights as other ITU-T Sector Members [RFC6756].
ISOC also supports the IETF standards process more indirectly (e.g.,
by promoting it in relevant communities) through several programmes.
For example, ISOC's Policymakers Programme to the IETF (usually
referred to simply as ISOC's policy fellows programme) gives policy
experts an opportunity to interact directly with the IETF technical
community. ISOC also performs technical work using the standards
developed in the IETF as its basis. An example of that is ISOC's
Deploy360 program, which helps encourage and support the deployment
of critical new IETF standards like DNSSEC [RFC4033] and IPv6
[RFC8200].
Otherwise, the involvement of ISOC's employees in the IETF standards
process (e.g., as document editors or in leadership positions) is as
individual contributors rather than on institutional grounds.
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].
The charter of the IAB (Internet Architecture Board) [RFC2850] states
that "the IAB acts as a source of advice and guidance to the Board of
Trustees and Officers of the Internet Society concerning technical,
architectural, procedural, and (where appropriate) policy matters
pertaining to the Internet and its enabling technologies". This
connection between the IAB and ISOC ensures that ISOC's proposals in
the policy area are based on a sound understanding of the relevant
technologies and architectures. ISOC's strong connection to the
Internet technical community has always been one of its main
strengths.
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6. Legal Relationship with ISOC
The IETF LLC was created as a subsidiary of ISOC. Specifically, the
IETF LLC is a single-member Limited Liability Company created in
Delaware (USA) in August 2018. The member (i.e., its legal owner) is
ISOC. The IETF LLC is managed separately, makes a budget, can sign
contracts, can pay and receive money, can sue and be sued, and has a
board. 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 [OpAgreement] that governs the
relationship between the IETF LLC and ISOC (while this document is
intended as a summary of the agreement, please note that only the
agreement is authoritative).
The IETF LLC provides the IETF with a separate legal existence. The
IETF LLC structure now covers (from a legal perspective) 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, and all of the IETF's other business
operations.
For tax purposes, the IETF LLC is considered a part of ISOC, known as
a "disregarded entity". This means that the IETF LLC shares ISOC's
tax exempt status as a not-for-profit charity, and contributions to
the LLC are tax deductible under U.S. law as they would be if they
were made to ISOC.
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. The creation of the IETF LLC has changed the way that
the IETF Trust's trustees are selected but did not change the purpose
or operation of the Trust. One of the IETF Trust's trustees is
appointed by the ISOC's board of trustees.
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7. Financial and Administrative Relationship with ISOC
Under the terms of the Operating Agreement [OpAgreement] 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). In particular, among other things, the IETF LLC
will be responsible for creating and managing an annual operating
budget for the IETF; for negotiating, signing, and overseeing
contracts; for fund raising; for maintaining a bank account; and for
liability insurance. The IETF LLC is managed by a board of
directors, one of whom is appointed by the ISOC's board of trustees.
The intention is that ISOC and the IETF LLC operate at arms length.
The IETF LCC establishes contracts with third parties to provide
different types of services to the IETF. Note that it is possible
that some of those services are provided by ISOC or involve ISOC
staff.
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-rfc4071bis].
8. IANA Considerations
This document introduces no new IANA considerations.
9. Security Considerations
This document introduces no new security considerations.
10. Privacy Considerations
This document introduces no new privacy considerations.
11. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Erik Huizer for his contribution as
the author of [RFC2031], which this document replaces.
12. Changes from Previous Versions
RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon publication.
-00: Initial version published
-01: Several key updates to prepare WGLC based on WG feedback
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-02: Fixed nits identified by Brian Carpenter on 12-21-2018, and text
on the tax status from John Levine.
-03: As we entered IESG review, added a short description of what
ISOC does (in relation to the IETF) that can be used in external
material by both the IETF and ISOC.
-04: Clarification adding text to Section 6 on legal issue.
13. Informative References
[I-D.ietf-iasa2-rfc4071bis]
Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Structure of
the IETF Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0",
draft-ietf-iasa2-rfc4071bis-04 (work in progress), January
2019.
[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-03 (work in progress), February 2019.
[OpAgreement]
"Limited Liability Company Agreement of IETF
Administration LLC", August 2018.
[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>.
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[RFC2850] Internet Architecture Board and B. Carpenter, Ed.,
"Charter of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)",
BCP 39, RFC 2850, DOI 10.17487/RFC2850, May 2000,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2850>.
[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>.
[RFC4033] Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "DNS Security Introduction and Requirements",
RFC 4033, DOI 10.17487/RFC4033, March 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4033>.
[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>.
[RFC6756] Trowbridge, S., Ed., Lear, E., Ed., Fishman, G., Ed., and
S. Bradner, Ed., "Internet Engineering Task Force and
International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication
Standardization Sector Collaboration Guidelines",
RFC 6756, DOI 10.17487/RFC6756, September 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6756>.
[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>.
[RFC8200] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
(IPv6) Specification", STD 86, RFC 8200,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8200, July 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8200>.
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Authors' Addresses
Gonzalo Camarillo
Ericsson
Email: Gonzalo.Camarillo@ericsson.com
Jason Livingood
Comcast
Email: jason_livingood@comcast.com
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