Re: Copyright statements in drafts

[Paul Hoffman / VPNC <paul.hoffman at vpnc.org>]

At 11:23 AM +0200 5/28/04, Magnus Westerlund wrote:
> What about these first page copyright notice. Which of the following 
> rules is the correct one for a internet draft?
> - MUST have the statement
> - MUST NOT have the statement
> - MAY have the statement

It's a MAY. Authors are welcome to use the boilerplate statement and 
thereby assign the copyright of the Internet Draft to ISOC, but they 
don't have to. The main reason why they might not want to (and why I 
don't include any copyright statement on my Internet Drafts) is that, 
if the document doesn't become an RFC, the copyright remains where it 
should: with the author.

Another reason not to use the boilerplate copyright statement on 
drafts is if they are intended to be RFCs that are also published by 
another standards body. It is better to leave the copyright with the 
authors until the two bodies agree on what the final copyright 
statement should be.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--VPN Consortium