Network Working Group B. Carpenter Internet-Draft Univ. of Auckland Updates: 5378 (if approved) H. Alvestrand Intended status: BCP Google Expires: August 17, 2009 February 13, 2009 Including text under former copyright conditions draft-carpenter-5378-old-text-01 Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 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. This Internet-Draft will expire on August 17, 2009. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2009 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. Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 Abstract This document specifies a procedure for including text in an IETF document for which the current copyright conditions defined in RFC 5378 cannot readily be met. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Appendix A. Non-normative initial version of disclaimer . . . . . 5 Appendix B. Non-normative explanation of background . . . . . . . 5 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 1. Introduction RFC 5378 [RFC5378] failed to describe one case that has practical consequences. The case is this: a contribution submitted under RFC 5378 contains material derived from one or more contributions submitted prior to RFC 5378, and it has proved impossible, after reasonable efforts, to obtain the agreement of the original contributors to the specific additional rights required to be granted to the IETF under RFC 5378 compared with those granted under previous IETF rules. In this case the document cannot be published consistently with RFC 5378. This can arise when the original contributors, or their assigns, are unwilling, unresponsive, unfindable, deceased, or no longer in business. This document is intended to specify the simplest possible solution for such cases. Additional background information is given in Appendix B below. 2. Procedure Definition: In this document, the phrase "prior to RFC 5378" refers to IETF Contributions made before November 10, 2008, when [RFC5378] became effective. Contributors of Internet-Drafts that contain substantial text originally contributed to the IETF by other persons prior to RFC 5378 have certain responsibilities. o They must identify the source of the substantial text that their contribution includes. o They, or people helping them, must make reasonable efforts to obtain or verify the agreement of the original contributors to their text being contributed under the terms of RFC 5378. o If such agreement cannot be obtained within a reasonable time, they must instead include a special disclaimer in the Internet- Draft. The current text of the disclaimer will be specified by the IETF Trust's "Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents", originally located at . The initial version of this text is in Appendix A below. o In either case, the Internet-Draft must contain acknowledgement and precise citation of the contributions concerned. If the disclaimer is included, the acknowledgement should also identify which previous contributors contributed which text, unless the text concerned is scattered throughout the document. Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 Before approving a document containing material originally contributed to the IETF prior to RFC 5378, for which permission to contribute it under RFC 5378 has not been obtained, the IESG must be satisfied that reasonable effort has been made to obtain the necessary rights. If such is the case, the resulting document, and any IETF Last Call message concerning the document, must contain the special disclaimer and acknowledgement defined above. The IESG and the IETF Trust, in collaboration, must provide a public register of documents prior to RFC 5378 for which the rights required by RFC 5378 have been provided retroactively, and a public register of rights holders who have retroactively provided such rights for all their IETF contributions prior to RFC 5378. The IETF Trust is requested to ensure that its policies and licenses allow for documents including the disclaimer. 3. Security Considerations This document does not affect the security of the Internet. 4. IANA Considerations This document requires no action by the IANA. 5. Acknowledgements Much mailing list discussion by the IETF community, and private email discussions with Jorge Contreras, Russ Housley, John Klensin, and others, have led to this document. This document was produced using the xml2rfc tool [RFC2629]. 6. References 6.1. Normative References [RFC5378] Bradner, S. and J. Contreras, "Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378, November 2008. 6.2. Informative References [RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996. Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 [RFC2629] Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629, June 1999. [RFC3667] Bradner, S., "IETF Rights in Contributions", RFC 3667, February 2004. [RFC3978] Bradner, S., "IETF Rights in Contributions", RFC 3978, March 2005. Appendix A. Non-normative initial version of disclaimer The current valid version should be taken from the IETF Trust's "Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents", originally located at . The initial version was: [[ Note to RFC Editor: please make sure this is the Trust's current disclaimer text at the time of publication. ]] [[ Note to the reader: the following text differs slightly from the Trust's disclaimer text current on the date of this draft. ]] "This document contains material from IETF Documents or IETF Contributions published or made publicly available before November 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this material are not known to have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process. Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format it for publication as an RFC and to translate it into languages other than English." Next to the note, there should be a list of the contributions from which the material in question was taken. If the material has been contributed multiple times (such as in multiple versions of an internet-draft), any version is a sufficient reference. Appendix B. Non-normative explanation of background This Appendix is not part of the formal rules of the IETF and does not purport to offer legal advice. Copyright provisions for IETF documents were first defined in [RFC2026] and were subsequently refined in [RFC3667] and [RFC3978]. Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 5] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 Their effect has always been to allow free use of contributions to the IETF process in IETF discussions, IETF drafts and IETF publications. Even prior to RFC 2026, such free use was considered the norm by all participants. RFC 5378 makes no difference to the IETF's right to use contributions freely within the IETF process. However, use of contributions outside the IETF process has always been subject to some limitations. The IETF does not require copyright transfers, and as a result contributors retain control except to the extent that the IETF rules applicable at the time of submission indicate otherwise. IETF and RFC Editor rules and practices have always allowed RFCs to be reproduced as complete documents, in English or in translation. This has not changed. The particular point at issue is the use of IETF contributions in works derived from IETF documents by third parties outside the IETF process. The rules in RFC 2026, RFC 3667 and RFC 3978 do not allow this without the contributors' permission, except for limited exceptions. The exception defined in RFC 2026 is that "derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it [the IETF document] or assist in its implmentation [sic] may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind..." This has been generally interpreted to allow extracts to be used in software implementations, user manuals, text books, and the like. RFC 3667 and RFC 3978 added explicit wording to further clarify that code extracts may be freely used by anybody: "(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...". However, RFC 3667 and RFC 3978 do not mention the category of "derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain..." For contributions made when they were in force, use of non-code extracts for commentary and explanation outside the IETF process appears formally to require explicit permission from the original contributors. In many jurisdictions, this might fall under the "fair use" provisions of copyright law or their local equivalent, and in any case most RFC authors would be glad of such use. [RFC5378] extends the rights granted by contributors to the IETF (in practice, the IETF Trust) such that the IETF itself (via the Trust) can grant the right to make derivative works to third parties. Short of a full copyright transfer to the IETF, this cleans up the situation for new documents. It allows the IETF to grant rights to Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 6] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 third parties to make use of new IETF documents in any way the IETF is happy with, and it leaves the original contributors free to do what they want with their own work (even in ways the IETF is unhappy with). As noted in the Introduction, there is an issue if a current IETF contribution, submitted under the new rules of RFC 5378, includes material originally submitted by a different contributor under one of the previous rules (including prior to RFC 2026 when there was no rule). Suppose Alice plans to submit a draft under RFC 5378 containing a modified version of a section of an RFC originally submitted by Bob under one of the older rules. This is a very common situation, for example when a protocol needs clarification or correction, or a new version is most conveniently documented by revising the old text. There are several possible approaches, all of which appear to fully respect Bob's rights without delaying publication: 1. Alice looks at the IETF web site, and finds that the previous RFC is listed as already being OK for use under RFC 5378 conditions, or that Bob and his employer are listed as allowing any of their contributions to be so used. Alice submits a draft using the normal RFC 5378 boilerplate, and includes an acknowledgement of Bob's contribution, such as: "Significant amounts of text have been adapted from RFCxxxx written by Bob, who has agreed to the text being submitted under the IETF's current copyright provisions". 2. Alice can easily find Bob's email address and he rapidly agrees that his old contribution may be used under current IETF rules. Alice submits a draft using the normal RFC 5378 boilerplate, and includes an acknowledgement of Bob's contribution, such as: "Significant amounts of text have been adapted from RFCxxxx written by Bob, who has agreed to the text being submitted under the IETF's current copyright provisions". 3. Similar, except that Bob prefers to be listed as a co-author. Again, the normal RFC 5378 boilerplate will be used. 4. Similar, except that this would increase the number of listed authors above the limit preferred by the RFC Editor. In this case, a list of fully identified Contributors would be used, as defined in the RFC Editor's Editorial Guidelines. 5. Bob can't be found, or doesn't reply in a reasonable period of time, or says he doesn't agree, or says that his previous employer actually owns the rights, and it would take months of discussion with their lawyers to get agreement. In such cases, Alice goes ahead, but includes the IETF Trust's recommended disclaimer in the draft. This is drawn to the attention of the working group and the IETF at the time of Last Call. Alice also includes a straightforward acknowledgement with more detail, such as: "Significant amounts of text in sections X, Y and Z have been Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 7] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 adapted from RFCxxxx written by Bob." The same possibilities would apply to text from an Internet-Draft submitted prior to RFC 5378, or to significant and substantial amounts of text posted as email as part of an IETF discussion prior to RFC 5378. There is scope for judgment and common sense when using small fragments of text, whether taken from speech, email, a draft, or an RFC. This Appendix doesn't define rules or offer legal advice, but it is not suggested that any of the above alternatives is necessary for odd phrases and sentences culled from normal ongoing IETF discussion prior to RFC 5378. However, when in doubt, it is presumably safer to include the disclaimer. A rule of thumb may be that if the contribution quoted is so small that its inclusion would not merit an acknowledgement according to RFC 3667 rules, it does not merit a permission search under the rules of this document. Note that for jointly written drafts, all direct and indirect contributors take responsibility for identifying text from other contributors contributed prior to RFC 5378. If Alice submits a draft written by herself, Alicia and Alize, all three are responsible for verifying that any old text from other contributions that they have re-used is handled according to this document. What amounts to sufficient agreement from Bob? The IETF process takes place mainly on-line, so a clear email agreeing to RFC 5378 conditions should be enough. However, it would be better if Bob also provides the hard-copy general non-exclusive license suggested by the IETF Trust. If Bob writes that he is replying on behalf of his co- contributors, that should also be enough. But if Bob states that he cannot speak for his previous employers, that is not enough on its own. In many cases, employment laws or contracts do not leave Bob with copyright in his own writings, so the previous employer's agreement is needed. The best way for that to happen is for the employer concerned to sign the Trust's general license. In most cases, it probably isn't reasonable for Alice to pursue this option. It will be a matter of judgment how hard to work on getting agreement from Bob and possibly his previous employer. If the issue is judged important, the WG Chair, the Area Director, or even the IETF Trust might be asked to assist. However, it seems likely that in many cases, that much effort may seem excessive, and it will be sufficient to include the disclaimer. It should be remembered that the IETF's ability to do its own work is absolutely unaffected by this result. Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 8] Internet-Draft Including old text February 2009 It should be noted that when the last alternative applies and the disclaimer is included, the situation for a third party wishing to re-use the old text is exactly as it always has been: the third party has to identify the legitimate copyright holder(s) ("Bob") and get their permission. The IETF, the IETF Trust, and the recent contributors ("Alice") are not concerned. The procedure defined in the main body of this document is intended to ensure that in the case of affected documents, the contributors, or people acting on their behalf, make a modest and reasonable effort to gain agreement from earlier contributors that RFC 5378 rules may be applied (basically, checking the IETF web site, and if necessary, sending "Bob" an email). If this fails, they have a simple and straightforward alternative - the disclaimer - which leaves all parties no worse off than under the old rules. And in all cases, normal good practice is followed by including an acknowledgment. Authors' Addresses Brian Carpenter Department of Computer Science University of Auckland PB 92019 Auckland 1142 New Zealand Email: brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com Harald Alvestrand Beddingen 10 Trondheim 7013 Norway Email: harald@alvestrand.no Carpenter & Alvestrand Expires August 17, 2009 [Page 9]