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rfc:rfc5378

Network Working Group S. Bradner, Ed. Request for Comments: 5378 Harvard University BCP: 78 J. Contreras, Ed. Obsoletes: 3978, 4748 WilmerHale Updates: 2026 November 2008 Category: Best Current Practice

           Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust

Status of This Memo

 This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
 Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
 improvements.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2008 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.

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
 obsoletes RFCs 3978 and 4748 and, with BCP 79 and RFC 5377, replaces
 Section 10 of RFC 2026.

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 1] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

Table of Contents

 1. Definitions .....................................................3
 2. Introduction ....................................................5
    2.1. No Retroactive Effect ......................................5
 3. Exposition of Why These Procedures Are the Way They Are .........6
    3.1. Rights Granted in Contributions ............................6
    3.2. Rights to Use Contributions ................................6
    3.3. Right to Produce Derivative Works ..........................6
    3.4. Rights to Use Trademarks ...................................8
    3.5. Contributions Not Subject to Copyright .....................8
    3.6. Copyright in RFCs ..........................................9
 4. Non-IETF Documents ..............................................9
 5. Rights in Contributions .........................................9
    5.1. General Policy .............................................9
    5.2. Confidentiality Obligations ...............................10
    5.3. Rights Granted by Contributors to the IETF Trust ..........10
    5.4. Sublicenses by the IETF Trust .............................11
    5.5. No Patent License .........................................11
    5.6. Representations and Warranties ............................11
    5.7. No Duty to Publish ........................................12
    5.8. Trademarks ................................................12
    5.9. Copyright in RFCs .........................................12
    5.10. Contributors' Retention of Rights ........................12
 6. Legends, Notices and Other Standardized Text in IETF
    Documents ......................................................13
 7. Security Considerations ........................................13
 8. References .....................................................14
    8.1. Normative References ......................................14
    8.2. Informative References ....................................14
 9. Acknowledgments ................................................15
 10. Changes since RFC 3978 ........................................15
 11. Declaration from the IAB ......................................16

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 2] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

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 [RFC2028].
 a. "Contribution": any submission to the IETF intended by the
    Contributor for publication as all or part of an Internet-Draft or
    RFC (except for RFC Editor Contributions described in Section 4
    below) and any statement made within the context of an IETF
    activity.  Such statements include oral statements in IETF
    sessions as well as written and electronic communications, made at
    any time or place, that are addressed to:
    o the IETF plenary session,
    o any IETF working group or portion thereof,
    o any Birds of a Feather (BOF) session,
    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, as described in Section 4 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 IETF Contributions in the
    context of this document.
 b. "Contributor": an individual submitting a Contribution.
 c. "Indirect Contributor": any person who has materially or
    substantially contributed to a Contribution without being
    personally involved in its submission to the IETF.
 d. "Copyright": the legal right granted to an author in a document or
    other work of authorship under applicable law.  A "copyright" is
    not equivalent to a "right to copy".  Rather a copyright
    encompasses all of the exclusive rights that an author has in a
    work, such as the rights to copy, publish, distribute and create
    derivative works of the work.  An author often cedes these rights
    to his or her employer or other parties as a condition of
    employment or compensation.
 e. "IETF": in the context of this document, the IETF includes all
    individuals who participate in meetings, working groups, mailing
    lists, functions, and other activities that are organized or

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 3] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

    initiated by ISOC, the IESG, or the IAB under the general
    designation of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), but
    solely to the extent of such participation.
 f. "IETF Documents": RFCs and Internet-Drafts that are used in the
    IETF Standards Process as defined in 1(g).  This is identical to
    the "IETF stream" defined in [RFC4844].
 g. "IETF Standards Process": the activities undertaken by the IETF in
    any of the settings described in 1(a) above.
 h. "IETF Trust": a trust established under the laws of the
    Commonwealth of Virginia, USA, in order to hold and administer
    intellectual property rights for the benefit of the IETF.
 i. "Internet-Draft": temporary documents used in the IETF Standards
    Process.  Internet-Drafts are posted on the IETF web site by the
    IETF Secretariat.  As noted in Section 2.2 of RFC 2026, Internet-
    Drafts have a nominal maximum lifetime of six months in the IETF
    Secretariat's public directory.
 j. "Legend Instructions": the standardized text that is maintained by
    the IETF Trust and is included in IETF Documents and the
    instructions and requirements for including that standardized text
    in IETF Documents.  The text and instructions are posted from time
    to time at http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info.
 k. "RFC": the publication series used by the IETF among others.  RFCs
    are published by the RFC Editor.  Although RFCs may be superseded
    in whole or in part by subsequent RFCs, the text of an RFC is not
    altered once published in RFC form.  (See [RFC2026] Section 2.1.)
 l. "Reasonably and personally known": something an individual knows
    personally or, because of the job the individual holds, would
    reasonably be expected to know.  This wording is used to indicate
    that an organization cannot purposely keep an individual in the
    dark about certain information just to avoid the disclosure
    requirement.
 m. "Non-IETF documents": Internet-Drafts that are submitted to the
    RFC Editor independently of the IETF Standards Process.  (See
    Section 4.)

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 4] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

2. Introduction

 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.
 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.)
 In order for Contributions to be used within the IETF Standards
 Process, including when they are published as Internet-Drafts or
 RFCs, certain limited rights must be granted to the IETF Trust, which
 then grants the necessary rights to the IETF.  In addition,
 Contributors must make representations to the IETF Trust and the IETF
 regarding their ability to grant these rights.
 Section 1 provides definitions used in these policies.  Sections 3
 and 4 of this document explain the rationale for these provisions.
 Sections 1, 2, 5, and 6 of this document are normative, the other
 sections are informative.  RFC 3979 (BCP 79) [RFC3979] deals with
 rights, including possible patent rights, in technologies developed
 or specified as part of the IETF Standards Process.  This document is
 not intended to address those issues.  This memo obsoletes RFCs 3978
 [RFC3978] and 4748 [RFC4748] and, with RFC 3979 (BCP 79) and
 [RFC5377], replaces Section 10 of RFC 2026 [RFC2026].
 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 Trust
 [RFC4371] in any Contributions they make.

2.1. No Retroactive Effect

 This memo does not retroactively obtain additional rights from
 Contributions that predate the date that the IETF Trust announces the
 adoption of these procedures.

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 5] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

3. Exposition of Why These Procedures Are the Way They Are

3.1. Rights Granted in Contributions

 The IETF Trust and the IETF 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 IETF Contributions in the IETF
 Standards Process and potentially elsewhere.
 The authors retain all other rights, but cannot withdraw the above
 rights from the IETF Trust and the IETF.
 It is important to note that under this document, Contributors are
 required to grant certain rights to the IETF Trust (see Section
 5.3.), which holds all IETF-related intellectual property on behalf
 of the IETF community.  The IETF Trust will, in turn, grant a
 sublicense of these rights to all IETF participants for use in the
 IETF Standards Process (see Section 5.4.).  This sublicense is
 necessary for the standards development work of the IETF to continue.
 In addition, the IETF Trust may grant certain other sublicenses of
 the rights that it is granted under this document.  In granting such
 other sublicenses, the IETF Trust will be guided and bound by
 documents such as [RFC5377].

3.2. Rights to Use Contributions

 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 because, under the laws of most
 countries and applicable international treaties, copyright rights
 come into existence when a work of authorship is created (but see
 Section 3.5 below regarding public domain documents), and the IETF
 cannot make use of IETF Contributions if it does not have sufficient
 rights with respect to these copyright rights.  The IETF and its
 participants would run a greater risk of liability to the owners of
 these rights without this assurance.  To this end, the IETF asks
 Contributors to give the assurances in Section 5.6 below.  These
 assurances are requested, however, only to the extent of the
 Contributor's reasonable and personal knowledge.  (See Section 1(l).)

3.3. 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

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 6] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

 react to changing conditions on the Internet and other IP networks.
 The IETF may also decide to permit others to develop derivative works
 based on Contributions.  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 to produce derivative works.  Note that
 the right to produce translations is required before any Contribution
 can be published as an RFC, to ensure the widest possible
 distribution of the material in RFCs.  The right to produce
 derivative works, in addition to translations, 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 a Contribution as a working group
 document or otherwise work on it.  For non-working group
 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 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 a Contribution has
 been accepted for development in the IETF Standards Process.  In
 these cases, the Contributor may include a limitation on the right to
 make derivative works in the form specified in the Legend
 Instructions.  A working group can discuss the Contribution 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
 Contribution as an RFC has not yet been granted.  However, if the
 Contribution is accepted for development, the Contributor must
 resubmit the Contribution without the limitation notices before a
 working group can formally adopt the Contribution as a working group
 document.  The IETF Trust may establish different policies for
 granting sublicenses with respect to different types of Contributions
 and content within Contributions (such as executable code versus
 descriptive text or references to third-party materials).  The IETF
 Trust's policies concerning the granting of sublicenses to make
 derivative works will be guided by RFC [RFC5377].
 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
 possibly claim that the IETF version is the "new version" of the

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 7] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

 organization's technology.  Organizations that feel this way can
 specify that a Contribution be published with the other rights
 granted under this document but may withhold the right to produce
 derivative works other than translations.
 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 Contribution, as
 specified in the Legend Instructions, in order to notify IETF
 participants about this restriction.

3.4. Rights to Use Trademarks

 Contributors may wish to seek trademark or service mark protection on
 any terms that are coined or used in their Contributions.  The IETF
 makes no judgment about the validity of any such trademark rights.
 However, the IETF requires each Contributor, under the licenses
 described in Section 5.3 below, to grant the IETF Trust a perpetual
 license to use any such trademarks or service marks solely in
 exercising rights to reproduce, publish, discuss, and modify the IETF
 Contribution.  This license does not authorize the IETF or others to
 use any trademark or service mark in connection with any product or
 service offering.

3.5. 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 he or she would grant, and to make the same representations,
 as though the IETF Contribution were protected by the same legal
 rights as other documents, and as though the Contributor could be
 able to grant these rights.  We ask for these grants and
 representations only to the extent that the Contribution may be
 protected.  We believe they are necessary to protect the ISOC, the
 IETF Trust, the IETF, the IETF Standards Process, and all IETF
 participants, and 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.

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 8] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

3.6. Copyright in RFCs

 As noted above, Contributors to the IETF (or their employers) retain
 ownership of the copyright in their Contributions.  This includes
 Internet-Drafts and all other Contributions made within the IETF
 Standards Process (e.g., via e-mail, oral comment, and otherwise).
 However, it is important that the IETF (through the IETF Trust) own
 the copyright in documents that are published as RFCs (other than
 Informational RFCs and RFCs that are submitted as RFC Editor
 Contributions).  Ownership of the copyright in an RFC does not
 diminish the Contributors' rights in their underlying contributions,
 but it does prevent anyone other than the IETF Trust (and its
 licensees) from republishing or modifying an RFC in RFC format.  In
 this respect, Contributors are treated the same as anybody else:
 though they may extract and republish their own Contributions without
 limitation, they may not do so in the RFC format used by the IETF.
 And while this principle (which is included in Section 5.9 below) may
 appear to be new to the IETF, it actually reflects historical
 practice and has been observed for many years through the inclusion
 of an ISOC or IETF Trust copyright notice on all RFC documents since
 the publication of RFC 2026.

4. Non-IETF Documents

 This document only relates to Contributions made as part of the IETF
 Processes.  Other documents that are referred to as Internet-Drafts
 and RFCs may be submitted to and published by the RFC Editor
 independently of the IETF Standards Process.  Such documents are not
 covered by this document, unless the controlling entity for that
 document stream, as described in [RFC4844] chooses to apply these
 rules.  Non-IETF Contributions must be marked appropriately as
 described in the Legend Instructions.  See the RFC Editor web page
 for information about the policies concerning rights in RFC Editor
 Documents; for other document streams, the controlling entity must be
 contacted.  See Section 11 for a declaration from the IAB on this
 matter.

5. Rights in Contributions

5.1. General Policy

 By submission of a Contribution, each person actually submitting the
 Contribution and each named co-Contributor is deemed to have read and
 understood the rules and requirements set forth in this document.
 Each Contributor is deemed, by the act of submitting a Contribution,
 to enter into a legally-binding agreement to comply with the terms
 and conditions set forth in this document.

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 9] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

 The Contributor is further deemed to have agreed that he/she has
 obtained the necessary permissions to enter into such an agreement
 from any party that the Contributor reasonably and personally knows
 may have rights in the Contribution, including, but not limited to,
 the Contributor's sponsor or employer.
 No further acknowledgment, signature, or other action is required to
 bind a Contributor to these terms and conditions.  The operation of
 the IETF and the work conducted by its many participants is dependent
 on such agreement by each Contributor, and each IETF participant
 expressly relies on the agreement of each Contributor to the terms
 and conditions set forth in this document.

5.2. Confidentiality Obligations

 No information or document that is subject to any requirement of
 confidentiality or any restriction on its dissemination may be
 submitted as a Contribution or otherwise considered in any part of
 the IETF Standards Process, and there must be no assumption of any
 confidentiality obligation with respect to any Contribution.  Each
 Contributor agrees that any statement in a 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.

5.3. Rights Granted by Contributors to the IETF Trust

 To the extent that a Contribution or any portion thereof is protected
 by copyright or other rights of authorship, the Contributor and each
 named co-Contributor grant a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive,
 royalty-free, world-wide, sublicensable right and license to the IETF
 Trust under all such copyrights and other rights in the Contribution:
 a. to copy, publish, display, and distribute the Contribution, in
    whole or in part,
 b. to prepare translations of the Contribution into languages other
    than English, in whole or in part, and to copy, publish, display,
    and distribute such translations or portions thereof,
 c. to modify or prepare derivative works (in addition to
    translations) that are based on or incorporate all or part of the
    Contribution, and to copy, publish, display, and distribute such
    derivative works, or portions thereof unless explicitly disallowed
    in the notices contained in a Contribution (in the form specified
    by the Legend Instructions), and

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 10] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

 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 Section 5.3,
    provided that when reproducing Contributions, trademark and
    service mark identifiers used in the Contribution, including TM
    and (R), will be preserved.

5.4. Sublicenses by the IETF Trust

 The IETF Trust will sublicense the rights granted to it under Section
 5.3 to all IETF participants for use within the IETF Standards
 Process.  This license is expressly granted under a license agreement
 issued by the IETF Trust, which can be found at
 http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info.
 This license is expressly granted under a license agreement issued by
 the IETF Trust and must contain a pointer to the full IETF Trust
 agreement.
 In addition, the IETF Trust may grant additional sublicenses of the
 licenses granted to it hereunder.  In doing so, the IETF Trust will
 comply with the guidance provided under RFC 5377 [RFC5377].

5.5. No Patent License

 The licenses granted in Section 5.3 shall not be deemed to grant any
 right under any patent, patent application, or other similar
 intellectual property right disclosed by the Contributor under BCP 79
 [RFC3979] or otherwise.

5.6. 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 Contributors, including
    Indirect Contributors.
 b. No information in the Contribution is confidential, and the IETF,
    IETF Trust, 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.

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 11] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

 d. The Contributor has not intentionally included in the Contribution
    any material that 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 that are reasonably and personally
    known to the Contributor are clearly designated as such where
    reasonable.

5.7. 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 this
 Section 5.

5.8. Trademarks

 Contributors 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 [RFC3979]
 Section 6.)

5.9. Copyright in RFCs

 Subject to each Contributor's (or its sponsor's) ownership of its
 underlying Contributions as described in Section 5.6 (which ownership
 is qualified by the irrevocable licenses granted under Section 5.3),
 each Contributor hereby acknowledges that the copyright in any RFC in
 which such Contribution is included, other than an RFC that is an RFC
 Editor Contribution, shall be owned by the IETF Trust.  Such
 Contributor shall be deemed to assign to the IETF Trust such
 Contributor's copyright interest in the collective work constituting
 such RFC upon the submission of such RFC for publication, and
 acknowledges that a copyright notice acknowledging the IETF Trust's
 ownership of the copyright in such RFC will be included in the
 published RFC.

5.10. Contributors' Retention of Rights

 Although Contributors provide specific rights to the IETF, it is not
 intended that this should deprive them of their right to exploit
 their Contributions.  To underscore this principle, the IETF Trust is

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 12] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

 directed to issue a license or assurance to Contributors, which
 confirms that they may each make use of their Contributions as
 published in an RFC in any way they wish, subject only to the
 restriction that no Contributor has the right to represent any
 document as an RFC, or equivalent of an RFC, if it is not a full and
 complete copy or translation of the published RFC.

6. Legends, Notices and Other Standardized Text in IETF Documents

 The IETF requires that certain standardized text be reproduced
 verbatim in certain IETF Documents (including copies, derivative
 works, and translations of IETF Documents).  Some of this
 standardized text may be mandatory (e.g., copyright notices and
 disclaimers that must be included in all RFCs) and some may be
 optional (e.g., limitations on the right to make derivative works).
 The text itself, as well as the rules that explain when and how it
 must be used, is contained in the Legend Instructions.  The Legend
 Instructions may be updated from time to time, and the version of the
 standardized text that must be included in IETF Documents is that
 which was posted in the Legend Instructions on the date of
 publication.
 The IETF reserves the right to refuse to publish Contributions that
 do not include the legends and notices required by the Legend
 Instructions.
 It is important to note that each Contributor grants the IETF Trust
 rights pursuant to this document and the policies described herein.
 The legends and notices included in certain written Contributions
 such as Internet-Drafts do not themselves convey any rights.  They
 are simply included to inform the reader (whether or not part of the
 IETF) about certain legal rights and limitations associated with such
 documents.
 It is also important to note that additional copyright notices are
 not permitted in IETF Documents except in the case where such
 document is the product of a joint development effort between the
 IETF and another standards development organization or is a
 republication of the work of another standards development
 organization.  Such exceptions must be approved on an individual
 basis by the IAB.

7. Security Considerations

 This memo relates to the 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.

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 13] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

8. References

8.1. Normative References

 [RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
           3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
 [RFC2028] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in
           the IETF Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 2028, October
           1996.
 [RFC3979] Bradner, S., Ed., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
           Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.
 [RFC4371] Carpenter, B., Ed., and L. Lynch, Ed., "BCP 101 Update for
           IPR Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, January 2006.

8.2. Informative References

 [RFC3978] Bradner, S., Ed., "IETF Rights in Contributions", BCP 78,
           RFC 3978, March 2005.
 [RFC4748] Bradner, S., Ed., "RFC 3978 Update to Recognize the IETF
           Trust", BCP 78, RFC 4748, October 2006.
 [RFC4844] Daigle, L., Ed., and Internet Architecture Board, "The RFC
           Series and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007.
 [RFC5377] Halpern, J., Ed., "Advice to the Trustees of the IETF Trust
           on Rights to be Granted in IETF Documents", RFC 5377,
           November 2008.
 [Berne]   "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
           Artistic Work", http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/
           trtdocs_wo001.html.

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 14] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

9. Acknowledgments

 The editors would like to acknowledge the help the IETF IPR Working
 Group provided during the development of the document.

10. Changes since RFC 3978

 This document represents a significant reorganization and rewording
 of RFC 3978, along with a number of substantive changes.
 The most basic change is to limit this document to the rights that a
 Contributor grants to the IETF Trust when making a Contribution.  All
 sublicenses of rights for the use of IETF Documents must be provided
 by the IETF Trust.  (See Section 5.4.)
 Material added from RFC 4748 that recognized the IETF Trust.
 Most of the material relating to RFC Editor documents has been
 removed since the RFC Editor maintains their own rules and processes
 for RFC Editor documents.  Renamed these documents to "non-IETF
 documents".  Added section 11 from the IAB discussing this topic.
 Changes in the definitions section include defining the terms
 "Contribution", "Indirect Contributor", "Copyright", "IETF Trust",
 and "Legend Instructions", as well as minor tweaks to some of the
 other definitions.
 The responsibility for the text of notices has been given to the IETF
 Trust and removed from this document.  (See Section 6.)
 Clarified that Contributors enter into a legally binding contract
 when they submit a Contribution.  (See Section 5.1.)
 The right to produce derivative works provided by the Contributor to
 the IETF Trust is not limited to being within the IETF Standards
 Process.
 Made it clear that this document does not deal with patent licenses.
 (See Section 5.5.)
 Clarified the ownership of the Copyrights to IETF Documents.  (See
 Section 5.9.)
 Clarified the rights retained by authors of IETF Contributions.  (See
 Section 5.10.)

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 15] RFC 5378 RFC 3978-incoming November 2008

11. Declaration from the IAB

 The IAB discussed the IPR documents during its most recent call.  It
 unanimously decided that the IAB stream is to be covered by the
 incoming IPR document.  It is our understanding that IAB stream
 documents' IPR are then automatically covered by the outbound rights
 that the IETF Trust will establish based on the advice in [RFC5377].
 We also want to stress that, for any change in the inbound rights for
 streams other than the IETF and IAB streams, there needs to be a
 stream-dependent discussion and approval process, as indicated in RFC
 4844, "The RFC Series and RFC Editor" [RFC4844], section 4.2.3.
 To that extent, section 4 of the document should explicitly mention
 that the IRTF, the Independent, and any possible future streams are
 not covered by the document.
 For the IAB,
 Olaf Kolkman
 April 4, 2008

Editors' Addresses

 Scott Bradner
 Harvard University
 29 Oxford St.
 Cambridge MA, 02138 USA
 Phone: +1 617 495 3864
 EMail: sob@harvard.edu
 Jorge L. Contreras
 WilmerHale
 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
 Washington, DC 20006 USA
 Phone: +1 202 663 6872
 EMail: jorge.contreras@wilmerhale.com

Bradner & Contreras Best Current Practice [Page 16]

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