Subject: Re: Reminder: Copyright 2006

From: John C Klensin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 11:27:04 -0500

--On Sunday, 05 March, 2006 07:53 -0800 Allison Mankin
<[email-masked]> wrote:

> Having seen quite a few authors surprised by the bounce
> because the Copyright Statement still says 2005, I thought I'd
> remind folks submitting now to check that theirs are set to
> 2006.
> 
> The -01 deadline is not a fun time to get an auto-bounce.

If the Secretariat is bouncing things for this reason, it is a
triumph of procedural rigidity over common sense (and even legal
requirements).  The position taken over and over again in the
IPR WG is that the ISOC (or "Trust") copyright applies to the
boilerplate and structure, not to the substantive text and that
ISOC and the IETF use that text only by releases from the
authors.  Even that copyright claim is, and always has been, a
bit dubious for I-Ds if only because the notion of a copyright
that expires after six months is, well, a little strange.    As
far as I know, the boilerplate and structure haven't changed.
If there is no change, then a claim to a 2006 copyright on the
basis of simple repetition of the same material is extremely
dubious (my vague recollection is that it might even be a
criminal offense under the laws of some countries to claim a
copyright date later than the first publication of the material).

So it would be good to know what is going on here and who has
responsibility for it.

That said, if things are getting bounced, Allison's advice is
certainly good in terms of getting documents posted.  My concern
is only about _why_ they are getting bounced, which is a
question that probably won't get resolved before the posting
deadline.

     john

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---

From: "Joel M. Halpern" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 19:28:23 -0500

Actually, the copyright notice covers more than just the boilerplate.
The authors retain their copyrights (there is no "transfer" of rights 
as confuses some folks sometimes.)
However, the IETF needs a right to copy (a copyright) so as to 
distribute, and work on, the Internet-Drafts and RFCs.
The text of the boilerplate grants us those rights.
Those rights are now invested in the IPR trust, and managed by the 
trustees (who are also the IAOC.)

Making sure we get those rights correct goign forward is part of that 
the IPR working group is dealing with.

Yours,
Joel

At 11:27 AM 3/5/2006, John C Klensin wrote:
>The position taken over and over again in the
>authors.