copyright.txt COPYRIGHTS AND PATENT RIGHTS IN RFCs 1 March 2005 _________________________________________________________________ This page summarizes the current rules governing RFC copyrights and dislaimers on patent ("Intellectual Property") rights. It is coordinated with the IETF documents [1]"IETF Rights in Contributions", BCP 78/RFC 3978 and [2]"Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology", BCP 79/RFC 3979. These documents are the result of a recent effort by the IPR Working Group of the IETF working group of the IETF, replacing earlier versions BCP 78/RFC 3667 and BCP 79/RFC 3668. An HTML version of this text is available at: http://www.rfc-editor.org/copyright.html. Earlier versions of this document: * copyright.17Feb04.txt * copyright.23Jan01.txt _________________________________________________________________ BCP 78 (RFC 3978) specifies the copyright rules applicable to RFCs, aligning these rules with modern copyright law. The rules are generally intended to safeguard the integrity, future availability, and usefulness of published RFCs but continue the historical policy of free and open distribution and reuse of RFCs, to the extent possible. As explained in BCP 78, there are two classes of RFCs: IETF submissions and RFC Editor ("independent") submissions. The rules for copyrights on IETF submissions are fully defined in BCP 78, but some aspects of these rules are left for the RFC Editor to define for independent submissions. There is really only one essential difference: the freedom to create derivative works; see below. Topics: o Reproduction Rules o Derivative Works o Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on RFC Content o Boilerplate within I-Ds and RFCs _________________________________________________________________ Reproduction Rules The following rules control the reproduction of RFCs by third parties: 1. Copying and distributing an entire RFC [1] without changes: 1a. Copying for free redistribution is allowed and encouraged. [2] 1b. Inclusion of RFC copies within other documents or collections that are distributed for a fee is allowed. [3] Note: In case (1b), it is a courtesy to ask the RFC author(s) and to provide a copy of the final document or collection. 2. Translating RFCs into other languages: Translation and publication of an entire RFC into another language is allowed. It is courtesy to inform the RFC author(s) of such translation. 3. Copying and distributing an entire RFC with changes in format, font, etc.: Changing format, font, etc. is allowed only with permission of the author(s). With this permission, rule 1. applies. 4. Copying and distributing portions of an RFC: This is what the lawyers call "preparation of derivative works". The rules are shown below. NOTES: [1] "Entire" includes all the copyright and IPR boilerplate. [2] This case permits the present mirroring of RFCs on many web sites. [3] Anyone can take some RFCs, put them in a book, copyright the book, and sell it. This in no way inhibits anyone else from doing the same thing, or inhibits any other distribution of the RFCs. _____________________________________________________________ Derivative Works + Permissions for Derivative Works Section 3.3 of BCP 78 specifies a restricted allowance for derivative works from RFCs that were IETF submissions. An author of one of these RFCs is required only to permit derivative works for use within the IETF standards process (although an author is free to permit more general usage). This means, for example, that it may not be permissible for a third party to extract text from an IETF submission RFC for use in a "man" page or other system documentation, even if credit is given. For independent RFC submissions, however, the RFC Editor requires that authors grant unlimited permission for derivative works, with appropriate credits and citations. In summary: o 4a. Preparation of derivative works from an RFC that was an IETF contribution is allowed, but only for use within the IETF standards process. Proper credit and citations must be provided [BCP 78 Section 3.3.a(c)]. o 4b. Preparation of derivative works from an RFC that was an RFC Editor contribution is allowed. [BCP 78 Section 4.2a(C)] Credit and citations must be given. + No Derivative Works (NDW) Since many Internet Drafts (I-Ds) represent work in progress, I-D authors sometimes want to prevent all preparation of derivative works based on their documents. Although Section 5.2a of BCP 78 specifies "no derivative works" (NDW) boilerplate that may be included in an I-D, IETF rules generally do not allow NDW boilerplate in documents used in the Internet Standards process (see Section 7.3 of BCP 78). Use of NDW boilerplate in an independent submission must be approved by the RFC Editor. The RFC Editor will generally allow use of NDW boilerplate only for publication of proprietary protocols or the publication of specifications developed by other standards organizations, as discussed in Section 7.3 of BCP 78. _____________________________________________________________ Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) BCP 79 governs issues concerning possible intellectual property described in RFCs. An IETF submission will include a "Disclaimer of validity" [BCP 79 Section 5] boilerplate. For RFC Editor submissions, BCP 79 requires this boilerplate if IPR has previously been disclosed for this RFC; however, the RFC Editor's policy is to always include this boilerplate. It may be omitted from a independent submission only when it is clear from the nature of the RFC contents that no intellectual property rights could be claimed. Note also that an RFC should not contain a notice of the existence of specific relevant intellectual property (patents, etc.). (This point is unclear in BCP 79, but the RFC Editor has been informed that the IPR Working Group is quite clear about it.) _____________________________________________________________ Boilerplate Within I-Ds and RFCs The normal last-page boilerplate in an RFC is shown for [10]IETF submissions and for [11]RFC Editor (independent) submissions. This boilerplate should appear in every Internet Draft. This boilerplate has the following components: + Copyright Statement [BCP 78 Section 5.4]. Note that there is a very small difference between the Copyright statements for IETF submissions [BCP 78 Section 5.4] and RFC Editor submissions. + Disclaimer [BCP 78 Section 5.5] + Disclaimer of Validity (of IPR claims) [BCP 79 Section 5] Finally, the RFC Editor will add its own acknowledgment of funding from the Internet Society at the end of the RFC. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________