Network Working Group S. Bradner
Internet-Draft Harvard University
Editor
June 2003
IETF Rights in Contributions
<draft-ietf-ipr-submission-rights-05.txt>
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions
of Section 10 of RFC 2026.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
Drafts.
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."
The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html
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
updates RFC 2026, and, with RFC XXXY, replaces Section 10 of RFC
2026. [note to RFC editor: replace XXXY with number of IETF IPR]
Copyright (C) The Internet Society. (2003)
Table of Contents
Status of this Memo.................................................1
Abstract............................................................1
1. Definitions ....................................................1
2. Introduction....................................................1
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3. Rights in IETF Contributions....................................1
3.1 General Policy...............................................1
3.2 Confidentiality Obligations..................................1
3.3 Granting of Rights and Permissions...........................1
3.4 Representations and Warranties...............................1
3.5 No Duty to Publish...........................................1
3.6 Trademarks...................................................1
4. Rights in RFC Editor Contributions...............................1
4.1 Requirements from Section 3.................................1
4.2 Granting of Rights and Permissions..........................1
5. Notices Required in IETF Documents..............................1
5.1 IPR Disclosure Acknowledgement................................1
5.2 Derivative Works Limitation...................................1
5.3 Publication Limitation........................................1
5.4 Copyright Notice .............................................1
5.5 Disclaimer ...................................................1
5.6 Exceptions....................................................1
6. Notices and Rights Required in RFC Editor Contributions.........1
7. Exposition of why these procedures are the way they are.........1
7.1 Rights Granted in Contributions...............................1
7.2 Rights to use Contributed Material............................1
7.3 Right to Produce Derivative Works.............................1
7.4 Rights to use Trademarks......................................1
7.5 Who Does This Apply To?.......................................1
8. Contributions Not Subject to Copyright..........................1
9. Security Considerations.........................................1
10. References......................................................1
10.1 Normative References.........................................1
10.1 Informative References.......................................1
11. Acknowledgements................................................1
12. Editor's Address................................................1
13. Full copyright statement........................................1
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 [RFC 2028].
a. "IETF": In the context of this document, the IETF includes all
individuals who participate in meetings, working groups, mailing
lists, functions and other activities which are organized or
initiated by ISOC, the IESG or the IAB under the general
designation of the Internet Engineering Task Force or IETF, but
solely to the extent of such participation.
b. "IETF Standards Process": the activities undertaken by the IETF in
any of the settings described in 1(c) below.
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c. "IETF Contribution": any submission to the IETF intended by the
Contributor for publication as an Internet-Draft or RFC (except
for RFC Editor Contributions described below) and any statement
made within the context of an IETF Standards Process. Such
statements include oral statements in IETF sessions, as well as
written and electronic communications made at any time or place,
which are addressed to:
o the IETF plenary session,
o any IETF working group or portion thereof,
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 described 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 Contributions in the context
of this document.
d. "Internet-Draft": temporary documents used in the IETF and RFC
Editor processes. Internet-Drafts are posted on the IETF web site
by the IETF Secretariat and have a nominal maximum lifetime in the
Secretariat's public directory of 6 months, after which they are
removed. Note that Internet-Drafts are archived many places on
the Internet, not all of these places remove expired Internet-
Drafts. Internet-Drafts that are under active consideration by
the IESG are not removed from the Secretariat's public directory
until that consideration is complete. In addition, the author of
an Internet-Draft can request that the lifetime in the
Secretariat's public directory be extended before the expiration.
e. "RFC": the basic publication series for the IETF. RFCs are
published by the RFC Editor and once published are never modified.
(See [RFC 2026] Section 2.1)
f. "RFC Editor Contribution": An Internet-Draft intended by the
Contributor to be submitted to the RFC Editor for publication as
an Informational or Experimental RFC but not intended to be part
of the IETF Standards Process.
g. "IETF Internet-Drafts": Internet-Drafts other than RFC Editor
Contributions. Note that under Section 3.3(a) the grant of rights
in regards to IETF Internet-Drafts as specified in this document
is perpetual and irrevocable and thus survives the Secretariat's
removal of an Internet-Draft from the public directory, except as
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limited by Section 3.3(a)(C). (See [RFC 2026] Sections 2.2 and 8)
h. "RFC Editor Internet-Drafts": Internet-Drafts that are RFC Editor
Contributions.
i. "IETF Documents": RFCs and Internet-Drafts except for Internet-
Drafts that are RFC Editor Contributions and the RFCs that are
published from them.
j. "RFC Editor Documents": RFCs and Internet-Drafts that are RFC
Editor Contributions and the RFCs that may be published from them.
k. "Contribution": IETF Contributions and RFC Editor Contributions
l. "Contributor": an individual submitting a Contribution
m. "Reasonably and personally known": means something an individual
knows personally or, because of the job the individual holds,
would reasonably be expected to know.
2. Introduction
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.)
This document details the rights that the IETF requires in IETF
Contributions and rights the IETF, as publisher of Internet-Drafts,
requires in all such Drafts including RFC Editor Contributions. The
RFC Editor may also define additional rights required for RFC Editor
Contributions.
In order for works to be used within the IETF Standards Process or to
be published as Internet-Drafts, certain limited rights in all
Contributions must be granted to the IETF and Internet Society
(ISOC). In addition, Contributors must make representations to IETF
and ISOC regarding their ability to grant these rights. These
necessary rights and representations have until now been laid out in
Section 10 of [RFC 2026]. In the years since [RFC 2026] was published
there have been a number of times when the exact intent of Section 10
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has been the subject of vigorous debate within the IETF community.
The aim of this document is to clarify various ambiguities in Section
10 of [RFC 2026] that led to these debates and to amplify the policy
in order to clarify what the IETF is currently doing.
Section 1 gives definitions used in describing these policies.
Sections 3, 4 and 5 of this document address the rights in
Contributions previously covered by Section 10 of [RFC 2026] and the
"Note Well" explanatory text presented at many IETF activities.
Sections 6 and 7 then explain the rationale for these provisions,
including some of the clarifications that have become understood
since the adoption of [RFC 2026]. The rules and procedures set out
in this document are not intended to substantially modify or alter
the IETF's current policy toward Contributions.
A companion document [IETF IPR] will deal with rights in technologies
developed or specified as part of the IETF process. This document is
not intended to address those issues.
The rights addressed in this document fall into the following
categories:
o rights to make use of contributed material
o copyrights in IETF documents
o rights to produce derivative works
o rights to use trademarks
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 in any
Contributions they make.
3. Rights in IETF Contributions
The following are the rights the IETF requires in all IETF
Contributions:.
3.1 General Policy
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.
3.2 Confidentiality Obligations
No information or document that is subject to any requirement of
confidentiality or any restriction on its dissemination may be
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submitted as an Contribution or otherwise considered in any part of
the Standards Process, and there must be no assumption of any
confidentiality obligation with respect to any Contribution. Each
Contributor agrees that any statement in an Contribution, whether
generated automatically or otherwise, that states or implies that the
Contribution is confidential or subject to any privilege, can be
disregarded for all purposes, and will be of no force or effect.
3.3 Granting of Rights and Permissions
By submission of an Contribution, each person actually submitting the
Contribution, and each named co-Contributor, is deemed to agree to
the following terms and conditions, and to grant the following
rights, on his or her own behalf and on behalf of the organization
the Contributor represents or is sponsored by (if any) when
submitting the Contribution.
a. To the extent that an Contribution or any portion thereof is
protected by copyright and other rights of authorship, the
Contributor, and each named co-contributor, and the organization
he or she represents or is sponsored by (if any) grant a
perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide
right and license to the ISOC and the IETF under all intellectual
property rights in the Contribution.
(A) to copy, publish, display and distribute the Contribution as
part of the IETF Standards Process or as an Internet-Draft,
(B) to prepare or allow the preparation of translations of the
Contribution into languages other than English,
(C) unless explicitly disallowed in the notices contained in an
Contribution [as per Section 5.2 below], to prepare derivative
works (other than translations) that are based on or
incorporate all or part of the Contribution, or comment upon
it, within the IETF Standards Process, the license to such
derivative works to be of a scope no wider than the license to
the original Contribution, and
(D) to reproduce any trademarks, service marks or trade names
which are included in the Contribution solely in connection
with the reproduction, distribution or publication of the
Contribution and derivative works thereof as permitted by this
paragraph. When reproducing Contributions, the IETF will
preserve trademark and service mark identifiers in the format
used by the Contributor of the Contribution, including (TM) and
(R) where appropriate.
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(E) To extract, copy, publish, distribute, modify and incorporate
into other works, for any purpose (and not limited to use
within the IETF Standards Process) any executable code or code
fragments that are included in any IETF Document (such as MIB
and PIB modules), subject to the requirements of Section 5 (it
also being understood that the licenses granted under this
paragraph (E) shall not be deemed to grant any right under any
patent, patent application or other similar intellectual
property right disclosed by the Contributor under [IPR DOC]).
b. The Contributor grants the IETF and ISOC permission to reference
the name(s) and address(es) of the Contributor(s) and of the
organization(s) s/he represents or is sponsored by (if any).
3.4 Representations and Warranties.
With respect to each Contribution, each Contributor represents that
to the best of his or her knowledge and ability:
a. The Contribution properly acknowledges all major Contributors. A
major Contributor is any person who has materially or
substantially contributed to the Contribution.
b. No information in the Contribution is confidential and the IETF,
ISOC, and its affiliated organizations may freely disclose any
information in the Contribution.
c. There are no limits to the Contributor's ability to make the
grants, acknowledgments and agreements herein that are reasonably
and personally known to the Contributor.
d. The Contributor has not intentionally included in the
Contribution any material which is defamatory or untrue or which
is illegal under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the
Contributor has his or her principal place of business or
residence.
e. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and other proprietary
names used in the Contribution and personally and reasonably known
to the Contributor are clearly designated as such where
reasonable.
3.5 No Duty to Publish
The Contributor, and each named co-contributor, acknowledges that the
IETF has no duty to publish or otherwise use or disseminate any
Contribution. The IETF reserves the right to withdraw or cease using
any Contribution that does not comply with the requirements of
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Section 3.4 and Section 3.3 or 4.2.
3.6 Trademarks
Contributors, and each named co-Contributor, who claim trademark
rights in terms used in their IETF Contributions are requested to
state specifically what conditions apply to implementers of the
technology relative to the use of such trademarks. Such statements
should be submitted in the same way as is done for other intellectual
property claims. (See [IETF IPR] Section 6.)
4. Rights in RFC Editor Contributions
The following are the rights the IETF, as the publisher of Internet-
Drafts, requires in all RDC Editor Contributions:
4.1 Requirements from Section 3
All RFC Editor Contributions must meet the requirements of Sections
3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6.
4.2 Granting of Rights and Permissions
By submission of an Contribution, each person actually submitting the
Contribution, and each named co-Contributor, is deemed to agree to
the following terms and conditions, and to grant the following
rights, on his or her own behalf and on behalf of the organization
the Contributor represents or is sponsored by (if any) when
submitting the Contribution.
a. To the extent that an Contribution or any portion thereof is
protected by copyright and other rights of authorship, the
Contributor, and each named co-contributor, and the organization
he or she represents or is sponsored by (if any) grant a non-
exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide right and license to the ISOC
and the IETF under all intellectual property rights in the
Contribution for at least the life of the Internet-Draft:
(A) to copy, publish, display and distribute the Contribution as
an Internet-Draft,
(B) unless explicitly disallowed in the notices contained in an
Contribution (as per Section 5.4 below), to prepare derivative
works (other than translations) that are based on or
incorporate all or part of the Contribution, or comment upon it
the license to such derivative works to be of a scope no wider
than the license to the original Contribution, and
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(C) to reproduce any trademarks, service marks or trade names
which are included in the Contribution solely in connection
with the reproduction, distribution or publication of the
Contribution and derivative works thereof as permitted by this
paragraph. When reproducing Contributions, the IETF will
preserve trademark and service mark identifiers in the format
used by the Contributor of the Contribution, including (TM) and
(R) where appropriate.
b. The Contributor grants the IETF and ISOC permission to reference
the name(s) and address(es) of the Contributor(s) and of the
organization(s) s/he represents or is sponsored by (if any).
5. Notices Required in IETF Documents
The IETF requires that certain notices and disclaimers described in
this Section 5 be reproduced verbatim in all IETF Documents
(including copies, derivative works and translations of IETF
Documents, but subject to the limited exceptions noted in Section
5.2). This requirement protects IETF and its participants from
liabilities connected with these documents. The copyright notice
also alerts readers that the document is an IETF Document, and that
ISOC claims copyright rights in certain aspects of the document, such
as its layout, the RFC numbering convention and the prefatory
language of the document. This legend is not intended to imply that
ISOC has obtained ownership of the IETF Contribution itself, which is
retained by the author(s) or remains in the public domain, as
applicable.
Each IETF Document must include the required notices described in
this Section 5. The required notices are the following:
a. The IPR Disclosure Acknowledgement described in Section 5.1 (for
Internet-Drafts only), and
b. The Derivative Works Limitation described in Section 5.2 (for
specific types of Internet-Drafts only).
c. The Publication Limitation described in Section 5.3 (for specific
types of Internet-Drafts only).
d. The Copyright Notice described in Section 5.4 (for all IETF
Documents),
e. The Disclaimer described in Section 5.5 (for all IETF Documents),
5.1 IPR Disclosure Acknowledgement (required in all Internet-Drafts
only)
"By submitting this Internet-Draft, I certify that any applicable
patent or other IPR claims of which I am aware have been
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disclosed, and any of which I become aware will be disclosed, in
accordance with RFC XXXY."
5.2 Derivative Works Limitation
If the Contributor desires to eliminate the IETF's right to make
modifications and derivative works of an Contribution (other than
translations), one of the two the following notices may be included
in the Status of memo section of an Internet-Draft and included in a
published RFC:
a. "This document may not be modified, and derivative works of it may
not be created, except to publish it as a RFC and to translate it
into languages other than English."
b. "This document may not be modified, and derivative works of it may
not be created."
In the cases of MIB or PIB modules and in other cases where the
Contribution includes material that is meant to be extracted in order
to be used, the following should be appended to statement 5.2 (a) or
5.2 (b):
"other than to extract section XX as-is for separate use."
Notice 5.2(a) is used if the Contributor intends for the Contribution
to be published as a RFC. Notice 5.2(b) is used along with the
Publication Limitation in Section 5.3 when the Contributor does not
intend for the Contribution to be published as a RFC.
These notices may not be used with any standards-track document or
with most working group documents, except as discussed in Section 7.3
below, since the IETF must retain change control over its documents
and the ability to augment, clarify and enhance the original IETF
Contribution in accordance with the IETF Standards Process.
Notice 5.2(a) may be appropriate when republishing standards produced
by other (non-IETF) standards organizations, industry consortia or
companies. These are typically published as Informational RFCs, and
do not require that change control be ceded to the IETF. Basically,
documents of this type convey information for the Internet community.
A fuller discussion of the rationale behind these requirements is
contained in Section 7.3 below.
5.3 Publication Limitation
If the Contributor only wants the IETF Contribution to be made
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available as an Internet-Draft (i.e. does not want the IETF
Contribution to be published as an RFC) then the Contributor may
include the following notice in the Status of Memo section of the
Internet-Draft.
"This document may only be posted as an Internet-Draft."
This notice can be used on IETF Contributions that are intended to
provide background information to educate and to facilitate
discussions within IETF working groups but are not intended to be
published as an RFCs.
5.4 Copyright Notice (required for all IETF Documents)
(Normally placed at the end of the IETF Document.)
"Copyright (C) The Internet Society (year). This document is
subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in RFC
XXXX and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their
rights."
[note to the RFC Editor - XXXX above to be replaced with the number
of this document]
Additional copyright notices are not permitted in IETF Documents
except in the case where the document is the product of a joint
development effort between the IETF and another standards development
organization. Such exceptions must be approved on an individual
basis by the IAB.
5.5 Disclaimer (required in all IETF Documents)
(Normally placed at the end of the IETF Document after the copyright
notice.)
"This document and the information contained herein are provided
on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/S HE
REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND
THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT
THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR
ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE."
5.6 Exceptions.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this Section 5, in certain limited
cases an abbreviated notice may be placed on certain types of
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derivative works of IETF Documents in accordance with this Section
5.6.
a. in MIB modules, PIB modules and similar material commonly
extracted from IETF Documents, the following abbreviated notice
may be included in the body of the material that will be extracted
in lieu of the notices otherwise required by Section 5:
"Copyright (C) <year> The Internet Society. The initial version
of this MIB module was published in RFC XXXX; For full legal
notices see the RFC itself or see:
http://www.ietf.org/copyrights/ianamib.html."
Substitute "PIB" for "MIB" in the statement for PIB modules. In
the case of MIB and PIB modules this statement should be placed in
the DESCRIPTION clause of the MODULE-IDENTITY macro.
[ note to RFC Editor - leave the "XXXX" in the above ]
b. short excerpts of IETF Documents presented in electronic help
systems, for example, the DESCRIPTION clauses for MIB variables,
do not need to include a copyright notice.
6. Notices and Rights Required in RFC Editor Contributions
Since the IETF acts as publisher of Internet Drafts, even Internet
Drafts not intended to become part of the Standards Process, the
following are required in all such drafts to protect the IETF and its
processes. The RFC Editor may require additional notices.
a. An IPR Disclosure Acknowledgement, identical to that specified in
Section 5.1.
b. One of the following two copyright release statements:
A. "By submitting this Internet-Draft, I accept the provisions of
Section 3 of RFC XXXX."
B. "By submitting this Internet-Draft, I accept the provisions of
Section 4 of RFC XXXX."
[note to RFC Editor - replace XXXX above with the number of this RFC]
7. Exposition of Why These Procedures Are the Way They Are
7.1 Rights Granted in IETF Contributions
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The IETF/ISOC 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 the IETF Contributions in the IETF
Standards Process while leaving all other rights with the authors.
The non-exclusive rights that the IETF needs are:
a. the right to publish the document
b. the right to let the document be freely reproduced in the formats
that the IETF publishes it in
c. the right to let third parties translate it into languages other
than English
d. except where explicitly excluded (see Section 5.2), the right to
make derivative works within the IETF process.
The authors retain all other rights, but cannot withdraw the above
rights from the IETF/ISOC.
7.2 Rights to use Contributed Material
Because, under the laws of most countries and applicable
international treaties, copyright rights come into existence whenever
a work of authorship is created (but see Section 8 below regarding
public domain documents), and IETF cannot make use of IETF
Contributions if it does not have sufficient rights with respect to
these copyright rights, 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. Without this
assurance, IETF and its participants would run a greater risk of
liability to the owners of these rights.
To this end, IETF asks Contributors to give the assurances in Section
3.4 above. These assurances are requested, however, only to the
extent of the Contributor's reasonable and personal knowledge. (See
Section 1(m))
7.3 Right to Produce Derivative Works
The IETF needs to be able to evolve IETF Documents in response to
experience gained in the deployment of the technologies described in
such IETF Documents, to incorporate developments in research and to
react to changing conditions on the Internet and other IP networks.
In order to do this the IETF must be able to produce derivatives of
its documents; thus the IETF must obtain the right from Contributors
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to produce derivative works. Note though that the IETF only requires
this right for the production of derivative works within the IETF
Standards Process. The IETF does not need, nor does it obtain, the
right to let derivative works be created outside of the IETF
Standards Process other than as noted in Section 3.3 (E).
The right to produce derivative works is required for all IETF
standards track documents and for most IETF non-standards track
documents. There are two exceptions to this requirement: documents
describing proprietary technologies and documents that are
republications of the work of other standards organizations.
The right to produce derivative works must be granted in order for an
IETF working group to accept an IETF Contribution as a working group
document or otherwise work on it. For non-working group IETF
Contributions where the Contributor requests publication as a
standards track RFC the right to produce derivative works must be
granted before the IESG will issue an IETF Last-Call and, for most
non-standards track non-working group IETF Contributions, before the
IESG will consider the Internet-Draft for publication.
Occasionally a Contributor may not want to grant publication rights
or the right to produce derivative works before finding out if an
IETF Contribution has been accepted for development in the IETF
Standards Process. In these cases the Contributor may include the
Derivative Works Limitation described in Section 5.2 and the
Publication Limitation described in Section 5.3 in their IETF
Contribution. A working group can discuss the Internet-Draft with the
aim to decide if it should become a working group document, even
though the right to produce derivative works or to publish the IETF
Contribution as a RFC has not yet been granted. If the IETF
Contribution is accepted for development the Contributor must then
resubmit the IETF Contribution without the limitation notices before
a working group can formally adopt the IETF Contribution as a working
group document.
The IETF has historically encouraged organizations to publish details
of their technologies, even when the technologies are proprietary,
because understanding how existing technology is being used helps
when developing new technology. But organizations that publish
information about proprietary technologies are frequently not willing
to have the IETF produce revisions of the technologies and then claim
that the IETF version is the "new version" of the organization's
technology. Organizations that feel this way can specify that an IETF
Contribution can be published with the other rights granted under
this document but may withhold the right to produce derivative works
other than translations. The right to produce translations is
required before any IETF Contribution can be published as a RFC to
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ensure the widest possible distribution of the material in RFCs.
In addition, IETF Documents frequently make normative references to
standards or recommendations developed by other standards
organizations. Since the publications of some standards
organizations are not public documents, it can be quite helpful to
the IETF to republish, with the permission of the other standards
organization, some of these documents as RFCs so that the IETF
community can have open access to them to better understand what they
are referring to. In these cases the RFCs can be published without
the right for the IETF to produce derivative works.
In both of the above cases in which the production of derivative
works is excluded, the Contributor must include a special legend in
the IETF Contribution, as specified in Section 5.2, in order to
notify IETF participants about this restriction.
7.4 Rights to Use Trademarks
Contributors may wish to seek trademark or service mark protection on
any terms that are coined or used in their IETF Contributions. IETF
makes no judgment about the validity of any such trademark rights.
However, the IETF requires each Contributor, under the licenses
described in Section 4.2.a above, to grant IETF a perpetual license
to use any such trademarks or service marks solely in exercising its
rights to reproduce, publish and modify the IETF Contribution. This
license does not authorize any IETF participant to use any trademark
or service mark in connection with any product or service offering,
but only in the context of IETF Documents and discussions.
7.5 Who Does This Apply To?
Rights and licenses granted to the IETF are granted to all
individuals noted in Section 1(a), irrespective of their employment
or institutional affiliation. However, these licenses do not extend
broadly to the employers, sponsors or institutions of such
individuals, nor do they authorize the individuals to exercise any
rights outside the specific context of the IETF Standards Process.
8. IETF Contributions Not Subject to Copyright
Certain documents, including those produced by the U.S. government
and those which are in the public domain, may not be protected by the
same copyright and other legal rights as other documents.
Nevertheless, we ask each Contributor to grant to the IETF the same
rights as he or she would grant, and to make the same
representations, as though the IETF Contribution were a proprietary
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Internet-Draft IETF Rights in Submissions June 2003
document. We ask for these grants and representations only to the
extent that the IETF Contribution may be protected. We believe they
are necessary to protect the ISOC, the IETF, the IETF Standards
Process and all IETF participants, and also because the IETF does not
have the resources or wherewithal to make any independent
investigation as to the actual proprietary status of any document
submitted to it.
9. Security Considerations
This memo relates to IETF process, not any particular technology.
There are security considerations when adopting any technology. But
there are no known issues of security with IETF Contribution rights
policies.
10. References
10.1 Normative references
[RFC 2026] Bradner, S.[ed], "The Internet Standards Process --
Revision 3", RFC 2026, October 1996
[IETF IPR] Bradner, S.[ed] "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
Technology", work in progress: draft-iprwg-technology-00.txt
10.2 Informative references
[Berne] "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Work", http://www.wipo.int/treaties/ip/berne/index.html
11. Acknowledgements
The editor would like to acknowledge the help of the IETF ipr Working
Group and, in particular the help of Jorge Contreras of Hale and Dorr
for his careful legal reviews of this and other IETF IPR-related and
process documents. The editor would also like to acknowledge the
extensive help John Klensin provided during the development of the
document.
12. Editor's Address
Scott Bradner
Harvard University
29 Oxford St.
Cambridge MA, 02138
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sob@harvard.edu
+1 617 495 3864
13. Full copyright statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). Except as set forth
below, authors retain all their rights.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for rights
in submissions defined in the IETF Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/S HE
REPRESENTS (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
14. change log
note to RFC Editor - remove this section before publication
ver 00 to ver 01
misc grammar changes throughout text
sec 2.2 - add note about automatic disclaimers
sec 2.3a - add "or is sponsored by" remove "unlimited"
sec 2.3 B - reword to 'of a scope no wider than the license"
sec 2.4a - add deff of major contributor
sec 2.6 - 2nd paragraph from sec 5.4 moved here
sec 3 - truncate heading
sec 3.1 5th pp - add OR IS SPONSORED BY
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sec 3.1.2 - new section with copyright notice for use where
derivative works right are withheld
sec 3.2 - added usage guidelines for boilerplates
sec 4.1 - add "intended by the contributor"
sec 4.6 - add "actual" before lifetime
sec 4.8 - reword
sec 5.3 - insert "standards" in front of "process" last pp -
add "with permission" phrase after "republish"
sec 5.4 - change "we require" to "the IETF requires"
sec 7/a - add PIBs
sec 8 - redo security considerations
sec 9.1 - remove IPR ID as normative reference
sec 9.2 - add IPR ID as informative reference
sec 12 - add changes section
ver 01 to 02
abstract - add note about updating 2026
sec 3.2 - add patent pledge
ver 02 to 03
misc copy edits throughout document
sec 4 - "personally and reasonably known" - remove detail
ver 03 to 04
sec 4 - added note to the definition of Internet-Draft
ver 04 to 06
added ToC
moved definitions to front
change "Submissions" to "Contributions"
change MIBs & PIBs to "MIB modules" and "PIB modules"
fixes to make sure MIB & PIB modules etc could be extracted
misc grammar edits through out document
sec 1 - rearranged definitions split IETF and RFC Editor
Documents & Contributions changed "Contribution" in rest of
document to be consistent with new definitions - added
section XX and YY as part of this split
sec 3.3 - (a) (B) break out translations from other derivative
works add (a) (E) remove (b) as redundant
sec 5 - reorganized
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