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rfc:rfc3978

Network Working Group S. Bradner, Ed. Request for Comments: 3978 Harvard University BCP: 78 March 2005 Obsoletes: 3667 Updates: 2026 Category: Best Current Practice

                    IETF Rights in Contributions

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) The Internet Society (2005).

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 3979, replaces Section 10 of RFC
 2026.

Table of Contents

 1.  Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
 2.  Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
 3.  Rights in IETF Contributions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  General Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Confidentiality Obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.3.  Granting of Rights and Permissions. . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.4.  Representations and Warranties. . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.5.  No Duty to Publish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.6.  Trademarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
 4.  Rights in RFC Editor Contributions. . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.1.  Requirements from Section 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.2.  Granting of Rights and Permissions. . . . . . . . . . .   8
 5.  Notices Required in IETF Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     5.1.  IPR Disclosure Acknowledgement. . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     5.2.  Derivative Works Limitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 1] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

     5.3.  Publication Limitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     5.4.  Copyright Notice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     5.5.  Disclaimer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     5.6.  Exceptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
 6.  Notices and Rights Required in RFC Editor Contributions . . .  13
 7.  Exposition of why these procedures are the way they are . . .  13
     7.1.  Rights Granted in IETF Contributions. . . . . . . . . .  13
     7.2.  Rights to use Contributed Material. . . . . . . . . . .  14
     7.3.  Right to Produce Derivative Works . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     7.4.  Rights to use Trademarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     7.5.  Who Does This Apply To? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
 8.  Contributions Not Subject to Copyright. . . . . . . . . . . .  16
 9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
 10. References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     10.1. Normative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     10.2. Informative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
 11. Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     Editor's Address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     Full Copyright Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

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. "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.
 c. "IETF 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 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,
    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,

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 2] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

    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 IETF 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, and 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 [RFC2026] 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
    limited by Section 3.3(a)(C).  (See [RFC2026] Sections 2.2 and 8)
 h. "IETF Documents":  RFCs and Internet-Drafts except for Internet-
    Drafts that are RFC Editor Contributions and the RFCs that are
    published from them.
 i. "RFC Editor Documents":  RFCs and Internet-Drafts that are RFC
    Editor Contributions and the RFCs that may be published from them.
 j. "Contribution": IETF Contributions and RFC Editor Contributions.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 3] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

 k. "Contributor": an individual submitting a Contribution.
 l. "Reasonably and personally known": means 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 patents or patent applications just to avoid the
    disclosure requirement.  But this requirement should not be
    interpreted as requiring the IETF Contributor or participant (or
    his or her represented organization, if any) to perform a patent
    search to find applicable IPR.

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 [RFC2026].  In the years since [RFC2026] was published
 there have been a number of times when the exact intent of Section 10
 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 [RFC2026] 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, 5, and 6 of this document address the rights in
 Contributions previously covered by Section 10 of [RFC2026] and the
 "Note Well" explanatory text presented at many IETF activities.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 4] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

 Sections 7 and 8 then explain the rationale for these provisions,
 including some of the clarifications that have become understood
 since the adoption of [RFC2026].  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 [RFC3979] deals with rights in technologies
 developed or specified as part of the IETF Standards 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
 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.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 5] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

3.3. Granting of Rights and Permissions

 By submission of a 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 a 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 in 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 a
        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 not granting the ISOC and the IETF any more
        rights than the license to the original Contribution,
    (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 used by the
        Contributor of the Contribution, including (TM) and (R) where
        appropriate, and
    (E) to extract, copy, publish, display, 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

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 6] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

        intellectual property right disclosed by the Contributor under
        [RFC3979]).
 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 IETF 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 that are reasonably and personally
    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
 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

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 7] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

 should be submitted in the same way as is done for other intellectual
 property claims.  (See [RFC3979] Section 6.)

4. Rights in RFC Editor Contributions

 The following are the rights the IETF, as the publisher of Internet-
 Drafts, requires in all RFC 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 RFC Editor Contribution, each person actually
 submitting the RFC Editor 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 RFC Editor
 Contribution.
 a. To the extent that an RFC Editor 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 RFC Editor Contribution for at
    least the life of the Internet-Draft:
    (A) to copy, publish, display, and distribute the RFC Editor
        Contribution as an Internet-Draft,
    (B) to prepare or allow the preparation of translations of the RFC
        into languages other than English.
    (C) unless explicitly disallowed in the notices contained in an
        RFC Editor 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 RFC Editor Contribution, or
        comment upon it.  The license to such derivative works not
        granting the ISOC and the IETF any more rights than the
        license to the original RFC Editor Contribution, and

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 8] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

    (D) to reproduce any trademarks, service marks or trade names
        which are included in the RFC Editor Contribution solely in
        connection with the reproduction, distribution or publication
        of the RFC Editor Contribution and derivative works thereof as
        permitted by this paragraph.  When reproducing RFC Editor
        Contributions, the IETF will preserve trademark and service
        mark identifiers used by the Contributor of the RFC Editor
        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 to 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
    (required in all Internet-Drafts).
 b. The Derivative Works Limitation described in Section 5.2 (for
    specific IETF Documents 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).

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 9] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

5.1. IPR Disclosure Acknowledgement (required in all Internet-Drafts

    only)
    "By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that
    any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is
    aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she
    becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of
    BCP 79."

5.2. Derivative Works Limitation

 If the Contributor desires to eliminate the IETF's right to make
 modifications and derivative works of an IETF Contribution (other
 than translations), one of the two of 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 an 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 IETF
 Contribution to be published as an RFC.  Notice 5.2(b) is used along
 with the Publication Limitation in Section 5.3 when the Contributor
 does not intend for the IETF Contribution to be published as an 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.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 10] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

 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
 available in 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 in 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 BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
    retain all their rights."
 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 the document is a republication of the work of
 another standards 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/SHE
    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."

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 11] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

5.6. Exceptions

 Notwithstanding the provisions of this Section 5, in certain limited
 cases an abbreviated notice may be placed on certain types of
 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, except for material that is being
    placed under IANA maintenance, the following abbreviated notice
    shall be included in the body of the material that will be
    extracted in lieu of the notices otherwise required by Section 5:
       "Copyright (C) The Internet Society <year>.  This version of
       this MIB module is part of RFC XXXX; see the RFC itself for
       full legal notices."
    When the MIB or PIB module is the initial version of a module that
    is to be maintained by the IANA, the following abbreviated notice
    shall be included:
       "Copyright (C) The Internet Society <year>.  The initial
       version of this MIB module was published in RFC XXXX; for full
       legal notices see the RFC itself.  Supplementary information
       may be available at:
       http://www.ietf.org/copyrights/ianamib.html."
    For other types of components than "MIB", substitute "MIB module"
    with an appropriate identifier.  In the case of MIB and PIB
    modules this statement should be placed in the DESCRIPTION clause
    of the MODULE-IDENTITY macro.
    Variations of these abbreviated notices are not permitted except
    in cases where the material to be extracted 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 organization.  Such variations must be approved
    on an individual basis by the IAB.
 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.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 12] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

6. Notices and Rights Required in RFC Editor Contributions

 Since the IETF acts as publisher of Internet Drafts, even for
 Internet Drafts that are 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 three copyright release statements:
    A. "By submitting this Internet-Draft, I accept the provisions of
       Section 3 of BCP 78."
    B. "By submitting this Internet-Draft, I accept the provisions of
       Section 4 of BCP 78."
    C. The Copyright Notice specified in Section 5.4 and the
       disclaimer specified in section 5.5.

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

7.1. Rights Granted in IETF Contributions

 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.
 e. the right to let third parties extract some logical parts, for
    example MIB modules
 The authors retain all other rights, but cannot withdraw the above
 rights from the IETF/ISOC.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 13] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

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(l))

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
 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.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 14] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

 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 an 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 an RFC to
 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.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 15] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

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 3.3 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 under this document 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. 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 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, 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.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 16] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

10. References

10.1. 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.

10.2. Informative References

 [Berne]    "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
            Artistic Work",
            http://www.wipo.int/edocs/trtdocs/en/wo/wo001en.htm

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.

Editor's Address

 Scott Bradner
 Harvard University
 29 Oxford St.
 Cambridge MA, 02138
 Phone: +1 617 495 3864
 EMail: sob@harvard.edu

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 17] RFC 3978 IETF Rights in Contributions March 2005

Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
 retain all their rights.
 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE 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.

Intellectual Property

 The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
 Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
 pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
 this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
 might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
 made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
 on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
 found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
 Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
 assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
 attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
 such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
 specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
 http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
 The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
 copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
 rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
 this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
 ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

Bradner, Ed. Best Current Practice [Page 18]

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