Internet Engineering Task Force                                 J. Arkko
Internet-Draft                                                  Ericsson
Intended status: Informational                         September 7, 2018
Expires: March 11, 2019


  Discussion of the IASA 2.0 Changes as They Relate to the IETF Trust
                  draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-00

Abstract

   The IASA 2.0 changes will have an impact on the IETF Trust because
   members of the IET Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) IAOC,
   which is being phased out, have served as Trustees of the IETF Trust.
   This discussion document provides background on the current IETF
   Trust arrangements, explains the effect of the rules in the founding
   documents during a transition to a new arrangement, and provides a
   rationale for the update.

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
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   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 March 11, 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
   (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.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of



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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Background  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  General Approach  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected  . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Transition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   7.  Changes from Previous Versions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   The IASA 2.0 changes will have an impact on the IETF Trust [RFC4071]
   [RFC4371] [I-D.hall-iasa2-struct].  This is because members of the
   IETF's Internet Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), which is
   being phased out, have served as Trustees of the IETF Trust.  A
   proposal for a minimal change regarding this has been provided
   separately in draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-update.

   This companion memo provides some background on the details of the
   current IETF Trust arrangements, explains the effect of the rules in
   the founding documents during a transition to a new arrangement, and
   provides a rationale for the update.

   This memo is provided only for discussion.  There is no intention to
   publish this memo as an RFC.

2.  Background

   The purpose of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Trust is to
   acquire, hold, maintain, and license certain existing and future
   intellectual property and other property used in connection with the
   administration of the IETF [RFC4371].  The intellectual property is,
   for instance, rights that the IETF contributors grant for text in
   RFCs and Internet Drafts.  The IETF Trust also manages trademarks
   such as "IETF" and domain names such as "ietf.org".  The IETF Trust
   is also serving the broader Internet community by holding domains and
   trademarks associated with Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
   [RFC7979].





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   The IETF Trust is a legal entity, registered in the Commonwealth of
   Virginia [Trust-FD].

   Currently, the members of the IAOC also serve as ex officio Trustees
   of the IETF Trust.  The founding documents specify persons eligible
   to become trustees as having to be then-current members of the IAOC
   [Trust-FD].  The documents also specify that if for any reason there
   are fewer than three individuals serving as Trustees, then the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), or the IESG's successor
   as the leadership of the IETF, shall appoint one or more individuals
   to serve in a temporary capacity as Trustee(s) until eligible persons
   can be found.

   In the current system there are eight IAOC members.  Two are named by
   the IETF Nominating Committee (NomCom), one by the IESG, one by the
   Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and one by the Internet Society
   (ISOC) Board of Trustees.  In addition, there are three ex-officio
   members via their roles as IETF Chair, ISOC CEO, and IAB Chair.  In
   addition, the IETF Administrative Director (IAD) serves also as one
   of the trustees.

3.  General Approach

   There are two basic approaches to resolving the issue with the
   trustees, if the IAOC ceases to exist.  One could imagine merging all
   IETF Trust functions in the new IASA structure and under the planned
   new legal entity.  This memo advocates a second approach where the
   IETF Trust is kept independent.

   The rationale for advocating the second approach is in part to
   minimize changes to the IETF Trust while the IETF's administrative
   structure is undergoing major change.  In addition, the IETF Trust
   and other administrative IETF process are quite different.  While
   very important, the IETF Trust is a low activity entity where changes
   are minimal and gradual, and there are no pressing issues.

4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected

   At the time when the trustees served on both the IETF Trust and the
   IAOC, many of the requirements for naming a particular group of
   people were driven by the IAOC's requirements.  For the IETF Trust in
   the new model, some of those arrangements can be rethought, both in
   terms of the number and source of the trustees, as well as the
   desired qualifications and length of terms.

   Several options are possible, of course.  A newly designed naming
   process could be devised.  This memo argues for relatively limited
   change, however, largely on the basis of the IETF Trust arrangements



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   generally working well, and on the relatively modest expected time
   commitments combined with the need for very careful management of the
   assets.

   As a result, a smaller group of trustees appears sufficient.

   In addition, the terms for the trustees selected from the IETF
   community could be set to longer than the two year period typical of
   other IETF bodies.

   One could continue the practice of having the chairs and CEOs from
   IETF, IAB, and Internet Society be trustees as well, but this may not
   be necessary.  In general, the tasks of the IETF Trust are well
   defined, and while there is a need for coordination, it does not need
   to be at the level of chairs or CEOs.

   Given all this, one approach is to have trustees appointed by the
   NomCom, IESG, and ISOC Board of Trustees, or even the new IETF
   Administration LLC legal entity (but he Internet Society is perhaps
   more focused on the broad use of the IETF Trust assets and not merely
   administrative aspects).

   If the same principles continue to be used as are used in today's
   appointments, then appointments performed by the NomCom need to be
   confirmed by another entity, which could be, for instance, either the
   IESG or the IAB.

5.  Transition

   When new entity for IETF Administration LLC is set up, soon
   thereafter the IAOC will be discontinued.  Fortunately, there's no
   pressing need to change all the components at the same time.  As
   discussed above (Section 2), the IESG holds the ability to continue
   to name trustees.  Once the changes suggested in Section 4 are in
   place, the IETF Trust will have management nominated in the usual
   manner, and the exceptional IESG process is no longer needed.

6.  Acknowledgements

   The author would like to thank other members of the earlier IASA 2.0
   design team who were Brian Haberman, Eric Rescorla, Jason Livingood,
   Joe Hall, and Leslie Daigle.  The authors would also like to thank
   Alissa Cooper, Ted Hardie, Andrew Sullivan, Brian Carpenter, Lucy
   Lynch, and John Levine for interesting discussions in this problem
   space.






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7.  Changes from Previous Versions

   RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon publication.

   The version draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-00.txt includes only
   editorial and language updates.

   The version draft-arkko-iasa2-trust-rationale-00.txt was the initial
   version.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [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>.

   [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>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.hall-iasa2-struct]
              Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Proposed
              Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity
              (IASA), Version 2.0 (for Discussion)", draft-hall-
              iasa2-struct-04 (work in progress), June 2018.

   [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update]
              Arkko, J. and T. Hardie, "Update to the Selection of
              Trustees for the IETF Trust", draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-
              update-00 (work in progress), September 2018.

   [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>.





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   [RFC7979]  Lear, E., Ed. and R. Housley, Ed., "Response to the IANA
              Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) Request
              for Proposals on the IANA Protocol Parameters Registries",
              RFC 7979, DOI 10.17487/RFC7979, August 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7979>.

   [Trust-FD]
              IETF Trust, , "Founding Documents", February 2014
              (https://trustee.ietf.org/founding-documents.html).

Author's Address

   Jari Arkko
   Ericsson
   Kauniainen  02700
   Finland

   Email: jari.arkko@piuha.net

































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