RFC 5378 BEST CURRENT PRACTICE PROCESS · COPYRIGHT · POLICY

Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust

What you hand over to the IETF Trust when you submit an idea, and what you get to keep.

On rfc-editor.org ↗
PUBLISHED
November 2008
AUTHORS
S. Bradner, J. Contreras
STREAM
IETF
BUILDS ON
RFC 3978 — IETF Contribution Rights, RFC 4748 — RFC 3978 Update to Recognize the IETF Trust, RFC 2026 — Internet Standards Process
SERIES
BCP 78
LICENSE TO THE IETF TRUST
Perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide, sublicensable
IETF TRUST FORMED UNDER
Laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA
DOI
10.17487/RFC5378
ERRATA
Reported errata

RFC text

Contents
Original text · RFC Editor View on rfc-editor.org ↗
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.

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

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
      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.)

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.

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
   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
   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.

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.

   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
   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.

   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
   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.

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.

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.)

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

AI ELI5

On this page
PROBLEMTo publish and work on people's submissions, the IETF needs legal permission to copy, translate and adapt them, but authors want to keep as many of their own rights as possible.
MECHANISMAnyone who submits a Contribution is deemed to agree to grant the IETF Trust a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide, sublicensable license, and to make a few representations about their right to do so.
WHY IT MATTERSAuthors keep ownership of their Contributions, while the IETF Trust owns the copyright in the published RFC as a collective work. The memo obsoletes RFC 3978 and RFC 4748 and covers copyright and similar rights, not patents.

§2Purpose and Scope of the Policy

RFC 5378 (BCP 78) is the IETF policy on rights in Contributions. Under the laws of most countries, authors get copyrights and other rights in their work automatically, and if the work is done in the course of employment, those rights often belong to the employer. For a Contribution to be used in the IETF Standards Process, including publication as an Internet-Draft or RFC, certain limited rights must be granted to the IETF Trust, which then grants the necessary rights to the IETF.

The memo is limited to copyright-style rights. Patent rights are handled by BCP 79 (RFC 3979), and the memo says it is not intended to address those issues. It obsoletes RFC 3978 and RFC 4748 and, with BCP 79 and RFC 5377, replaces Section 10 of RFC 2026. It is not legal advice.

Sections 1, 2, 5 and 6 are normative; the others are informative. The memo has no retroactive effect: it does not obtain additional rights from Contributions that predate the date the IETF Trust announces adoption of these procedures.

Before the club can put your drawing in its newsletter, you have to say that is okay. This memo is the club rule for that, and it does not reach back to drawings handed in before the rule began.

§1Key Definitions

A Contribution is any submission intended for publication as all or part of an Internet-Draft or RFC, plus any statement made within the context of an IETF activity. That includes oral statements in IETF sessions and written or electronic communications to plenary sessions, working groups, BOFs, the IESG, the IAB, IETF mailing lists, the RFC Editor or the Internet-Drafts function. Statements clearly not meant as input to an IETF activity are not Contributions.

A Contributor is the individual submitting it. An Indirect Contributor is anyone who materially or substantially contributed without being personally involved in the submission. The IETF Trust is a trust established under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA, to hold and administer intellectual property rights for the benefit of the IETF.

The Legend Instructions are the standardized text maintained by the IETF Trust, with the rules for including it in IETF Documents. Reasonably and personally known means something a person knows personally or, because of their job, would reasonably be expected to know, so an organization cannot keep a person in the dark to avoid an obligation.

A Contribution is anything you hand in or say out loud to the club for its projects. The Trust is the club's treasurer for ideas, keeping safe the permissions everyone gives.

§3Why the Rules Look This Way

The main goal is to obtain from authors only the non-exclusive rights needed to develop and publish IETF Documents. Authors keep all other rights but cannot withdraw the rights they have granted. The IETF Trust holds the rights and sublicenses them to all IETF participants for use in the IETF Standards Process, and may grant other sublicenses guided by RFC 5377.

The IETF asks for assurances that Contributors have the authority to grant these rights, because copyright comes into existence when a work is created and the IETF cannot use a Contribution without sufficient rights. The assurances are requested only to the extent of the Contributor's reasonable and personal knowledge.

The right to produce derivative works lets the IETF evolve documents as deployment experience accumulates. The right to produce translations is required before any Contribution can be published as an RFC. Derivative works beyond translations are required for all Standards Track documents and for most others, with two exceptions: documents describing proprietary technologies and republications of other standards organizations' work. In those cases a special legend tells readers about the restriction.

Contributions not subject to copyright, such as those produced by the U.S. government or in the public domain, are still asked to carry the same grants and representations, to the extent the Contribution may be protected.

The club only asks for the permissions it really needs, like copying your drawing and translating its caption. You keep everything else, and you cannot take back what you already allowed.

§5.1Agreement by Submission and Confidentiality

By submitting a Contribution, each person actually submitting it and each named co-Contributor is deemed to have read and understood these rules and to have entered into a legally-binding agreement to comply with them. No further acknowledgment, signature or other action is required.

The Contributor is also deemed to have obtained the necessary permissions from any party the Contributor reasonably and personally knows may have rights in the Contribution, including a sponsor or employer.

No information subject to a confidentiality requirement or restriction on dissemination may be submitted as a Contribution or otherwise considered in the IETF Standards Process. A statement in a Contribution, even an automatically generated one, that claims confidentiality or privilege can be disregarded and has no force or effect.

Handing something in counts as saying yes to the rules, with no form to sign. And you cannot hand in a secret, because anything given to the club is meant to be shared.

§5.3The License Granted to the IETF Trust

To the extent a Contribution is protected by copyright or other rights of authorship, the Contributor and each named co-Contributor grant the IETF Trust a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide, sublicensable license. It lets the Trust copy, publish, display and distribute the Contribution, prepare translations, prepare derivative works unless the notices in the Contribution explicitly disallow them, and reproduce trademarks in it solely in connection with reproducing and publishing the Contribution.

The Trust sublicenses these rights to all IETF participants for use within the IETF Standards Process under a license agreement it issues, and may grant further sublicenses in line with RFC 5377.

The grant is not a patent license: it does not give any right under a patent or patent application disclosed under BCP 79 or otherwise. Contributors claiming trademark rights in terms used in a Contribution are requested to state what conditions apply to implementers.

You let the club's treasurer copy and share your drawing, forever and for free, and the treasurer can pass that permission to club members. Letting them copy the drawing does not let them use your invention.

HOW RIGHTS FLOW (RFC 5378, SECTIONS 5.3 AND 5.4)
ContributorIETF TrustIETF participants
  1. License grantPerpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide, sublicensable.
  2. SublicenseFor use within the IETF Standards Process.
WHAT THE LICENSE COVERS (SECTION 5.3)
  • Copy and publishCopy, publish, display and distribute the Contribution, in whole or in part.
  • TranslatePrepare translations into languages other than English.
  • Derivative worksModify or build on it, unless the notices in the Contribution disallow it.
  • TrademarksReproduce trademarks in it, solely in connection with publishing the Contribution.

§5.6Representations, RFC Copyright and Retained Rights

Each Contributor represents, to the best of their knowledge and ability, that the Contribution properly acknowledges all Contributors including Indirect Contributors, that nothing in it is confidential, that nothing limits their ability to make these grants, that they have not intentionally included defamatory, untrue or illegal material, and that trademarks and proprietary names are clearly designated as such where reasonable.

The IETF has no duty to publish any Contribution and may withdraw or stop using one that does not comply.

Contributors or their sponsors keep ownership of their underlying Contributions. But for an RFC, other than an RFC Editor Contribution, each Contributor acknowledges that the copyright in the RFC as a collective work is owned by the IETF Trust, and is deemed to assign that interest on submission. The IETF Trust is directed to issue a license or assurance confirming that Contributors may use their Contributions as published in an RFC in any way they wish, with one restriction: nobody may represent a document as an RFC, or the equivalent, unless it is a full and complete copy or translation of the published RFC.

You promise the drawing is really yours to share and not a copy of someone else's. The club owns the finished newsletter, but you can still use your own drawing however you like.

§6Legends, Notices and Other Non-IETF Documents

Certain standardized text, such as copyright notices and disclaimers, must be reproduced verbatim in IETF Documents, including copies, derivative works and translations. The text and the rules for using it live in the Legend Instructions maintained by the IETF Trust, and the version that applies is the one posted on the publication date. The IETF may refuse to publish Contributions that lack the required legends. The legends themselves convey no rights; the grants come from this policy. Additional copyright notices are not permitted except for joint development with, or republication of, another standards organization, and only with approval by the IAB.

The memo applies to Contributions made in the IETF process. Documents submitted to the RFC Editor independently are called non-IETF documents and are not covered unless the controlling entity for that document stream applies these rules. Section 11 records an IAB declaration that the IAB stream is covered, and that other streams need their own discussion and approval process.

The Security Considerations section says there are no known security issues with Contribution rights policies.

Some official stickers must be copied exactly onto every copy of the newsletter. The stickers only tell people the rules and do not give any permission by themselves.

§10What Changed Since RFC 3978

The memo is a significant reorganization and rewording of RFC 3978. The most basic change limits it to the rights a Contributor grants to the IETF Trust; all sublicenses for using IETF Documents must come from the Trust. Material from RFC 4748 recognizing the IETF Trust was added.

Most material on RFC Editor documents was removed, and those documents were renamed non-IETF documents. New definitions were added for Contribution, Indirect Contributor, Copyright, IETF Trust and Legend Instructions. Responsibility for the text of notices moved to the IETF Trust.

The memo also makes clear that submitting a Contribution creates a legally binding contract, that it does not deal with patent licenses, who owns the copyright in IETF Documents, and what rights authors retain. The derivative-works right is no longer limited to use within the IETF Standards Process.

The club rewrote its old rulebook so that one treasurer hands out the permissions and the rules are easier to follow.

§9References