this combined three sections of the previous FAQ that seemed duplicative (Copyright and IETF Copyright Policies, IETF Copyright Licenses, Copyright and Other Notices in IETF Documents), but can be changed
1. Why are copyrights relevant to the IETF?
Copyright law protects all forms of creative expression, including written documents, images, diagrams, audio recordings, software code and even designs printed on t-shirts. Almost all countries have some form of copyright law, and most developed countries adhere to the so-called Berne Convention on Artistic and Literary Works, which normalizes copyright protection among member countries.
Copyright is relevant to IETF because almost all written documents are protected by copyright. This includes Internet-Drafts, RFCs and all code that is included in these documents.
This FAQ addresses copyright and licensing issues relating to IETF Documents (Internet- Drafts and RFCs) and other contributions to the IETF standards process, as well as documents published as Internet-Drafts and RFCs in the Independent Stream, IAB Stream and IRTF Stream.
2. Where can I find the IETF’s policy regarding copyrights?
The IETF copyright policy is currently set out in two documents: RFC 5378 and the IETF Trust’s Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents which we sometimes refer to as the “TLP”. For reference, superseded versions of the TLP are also cataloged here.
3. When did the current policy go into effect, and what about documents that were published or submitted before that?
IETF’s current copyright policy in RFC 5378 became effective on November 10, 2008 and applies to all IETF Contributions submitted on or after that date and to all IETF Documents published on or after that date.
Below is a brief chronology of IETF copyright policies and their dates of effectiveness:
| RFCs | Effective |
|---|---|
| 5378 (Obsoletes RFCs 3978 and 4748 and, with BCP 79 and RFC 5377, replaces Section 10 of RFC 2026) |
November 10, 2008 |
| 4748 (updated 3978) | October 2006 |
| 3978 | March 2005 |
| 3667 | February 2004 |
| 2026 (Section 10) | October 1996 |
| 1602 (Section 5) | March 1994 |
4. Why do we need two documents to describe the IETF copyright policy (i.e., RFC 5378 and the TLP)? What is the difference between these two documents?
RFC 5378 is an IETF BCP that has been adopted pursuant to the IETF standards-track process. It describes the rights that everyone who participates in IETF activities grants to the IETF Trust in documents, drafts, comments, e-mail messages and other “contributions” made within the context of IETF activities. In the past, RFC 5378 has been referred to informally as an “Inbound Rights” document, because it describes the rights that are granted “into” the IETF Trust by participants in the IETF process.
The TLP has been referred to as an “Outbound Rights” document, because it describes the rights that the IETF Trust grants to others, including participants in the IETF standards process. The TLP is based on the suggestions given to the Trust by the community in RFC 5377.
Thus, RFC 5378 and the TLP work together to obtain necessary rights from contributors and then to grant necessary rights to IETF participants, and to those outside the IETF standards process.
5. I thought that RFC 8721 was the “Outbound Rights” document. What does it do?
RFC 8721 expresses the IETF community’s instructions to the IETF Trust regarding the granting of rights. The IETF Trust, in developing the TLP and when granting rights outside the IETF standards process, carefully considers and implements the community’s instructions as outlined in RFC 8721.
6. What is the “Note Well” wording that is distributed at IETF meetings and appears on the IETF web site?
The “Note Well” notifies participants in IETF activities of some of the important rules that apply to their participation in the IETF. In particular, participants are reminded of the copyright rules in RFC 5378, the patent disclosure rules in RFC 8179 and other rules relating, for example, to recording IETF meetings. The “Note Well” text itself does not constitute a set of rules, but is only a pointer to the rules that are currently in force within the IETF.
7. What is an IETF Contribution?
As defined in RFC 5378, an IETF Contribution is any submission to the IETF intended by the contributor for publication as all or part of an Internet-Draft or RFC, and any statement made within the context of an IETF activity, such as an email to an IETF mail list or a statement made at an IETF meeting session.
8. Who owns the copyright in Internet-Drafts and other IETF Contributions?
The “author” of an IETF Contribution retains his or her ownership of the copyright in that IETF contribution. The author is the person or persons who created the contribution. For copyright purposes, a company can be an author. Note, however, that even if the author(s) retain ownership of this copyright, they still must grant a license to the IETF Trust on the terms set forth in RFC 5378.
9. Can IETF Contributions be jointly owned?
Yes. Copyright law generally provides that any person who substantially contributed to the creation of a copyrighted work jointly owns the work. In the case of IETF Contributions, this means that a document with multiple authors would be jointly owned by those authors.
10. What about my employer? Doesn’t it own everything I create, and doesn’t this make my licenses to the IETF meaningless?
In the U.S., any work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment is a “work made for hire”, and the employer is considered its “author” for copyright purposes. This may not always be the case, however, in other countries or where independent contractors, academic faculty, students, or people from multiple jurisdictions are concerned. Because of the variability in employment and copyright ownership rules, the IETF does not differentiate between types of participants. Rather, it requires every IETF participant, individually, to ensure that he or she is capable of granting to the IETF all rights that are required under RFC 5378. This means that, in some cases, an employer must, explicitly or implicitly, grant some rights back to its employees to ensure that the IETF Trust gets the licenses that are required.
Note that when an author submits his or her Contribution to the IETF, the author warrants that he or she has the authority to grant all necessary rights under RFC 5378, so the author must ensure that all appropriate arrangements are in place with his or her employer.
11. Aren’t some documents in the “public domain?
Yes. Some documents are not protected by copyright. This means that they can generally be copied, modified and distributed without restriction.
Documents in the public domain include all documents created by or for the U.S. Federal Government and documents whose copyright has expired. Copyright expiration is quite complex and varies country-by-country. Suffice it to say, however, that most documents created within the past 50 years are still protected by copyright.
It is important to note that a document is not necessarily in the “public domain” for legal purposes simply because it is publicly-accessible (e.g., published on the Web) or because it is available under an “open source” license agreement. In both of these cases, somebody still owns and controls the copyright in the document, even if that person has granted relatively broad rights to the public.
No license is needed to use or modify public domain documents. However, given the complexity of determining whether or not a particular document is in the public domain, the IETF Trust does not seek to differentiate between public domain and non-public domain documents. Thus, the same assurances are requested, and the same licenses are granted, for all documents. In the case of public domain documents, however, your rights may be greater than those granted under the IETF Trust’s outbound license.
12. What is “fair use?
“Fair Use” is a concept in copyright law that varies from country to country. In the U.S., “fair use” is defined in Section 107 of the Copyright Act and has been interpreted by courts over many years. In general, the principle of fair use allows limited use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research and parody.
Because the doctrine of fair use has been interpreted rather narrowly in many cases, and because its application varies from country to country, the IETF seeks to obtain all necessary rights through the express license grants described in RFC 5378 rather than attempting to rely on the fair use doctrine.
13. What rights are granted to the IETF Trust under RFC 5378?
Under RFC 5378, each Contributor grants the IETF Trust a broad (worldwide, royaltyfree) license to copy, publish, display, translate and distribute his or her IETF Contributions. In addition, unless certain legends are included in a Contribution, the IETF Trust also obtains the right to modify and create derivative works of these Contributions and to grant sublicenses of those rights to others.
The license to the IETF Trust is non-exclusive. This means that the author can grant a similar license to any other organization or entity without violating the license granted to the IETF Trust, so long as the license to the IETF Trust is not thereby constrained.
14. Can I ever revoke a license that has been granted to the IETF Trust?
No. The licenses that Contributors grant to the IETF Trust are intended to be perpetual and irrevocable.
15. Do the licenses I grant under RFC 5378 also include patent rights?
No. The license granted under RFC 5378 covers copyrights and trademarks that are included in the Contribution. Patent rights are not licensed. For the IETF’s rules regarding patents, see RFC 8179.
16. What rights does the IETF Trust grant to IETF participants within the IETF standards process?
Under the TLP, the IETF Trust grants each IETF participant the right to copy, publish, display, translate and distribute all IETF Documents and Contributions, and (unless certain legends are included) to modify and make derivative works of them, within the IETF standards process. These are the rights needed to enable IETF work to be conducted as it always has been.
17. Are any rights granted by the IETF Trust outside the IETF standards process?
Yes. Anyone can publish and translate unmodified IETF Documents and Contributions for any purpose, even outside the IETF Standards Process.
In addition, Code Components included in IETF Documents can be used for any purpose pursuant to an open source license.
However, additional rights to modify and make derivative works (other than translations) of IETF Documents and Contributions outside the IETF Standards Process are not granted by the Trust. Rather, these rights are only granted by the IETF Trust on a case-by- case basis, after consultation with the community.
Before March, 2005, Code Components and textual portions of IETF Documents and Contributions were not differentiated (see RFC 2026 Sec. 10.3.1.1). This means that there were essentially no restrictions on re-use or modification of Code Components unless a no-derivatives legend was included in the document.
18. How can I get permission to modify an IETF Document or portion thereof outside the IETF standards process (other than for translation)?
If you are an author of the material, then you retain your copyright in the material and may modify it without permission.
If the material was written by someone else, then you can either ask the copyright holder for permission or apply to the IETF Trust for permission. The IETF Trust will consider all such requests on a case-by-case basis. To make such a request to the IETF Trust, send an email, explaining the request as fully as possible, to the Trustees at trustees@ietf.org.
19. Are there some IETF Documents that cannot be modified, even within the IETF Standards Process?
Yes. For quite some time IETF has allowed the submission of documents that bear a legend limiting the right to make derivative works and the right to publish as an RFC (see the legends contained in TLP Sections 6.c.i and ii). Documents published with these legends are typically not standards-track documents, and are distributed as Internet-Drafts or Experimental RFCs for informational purposes only.
20. Do I need a license to use the Legends, Notices and Other Standardized Text found in IETF Documents?
No. Headers and boilerplate as described in RFC 7841 and found in IETF Documents (as defined in RFC 5378) include the copyright notice, along with the other required and optional notices mentioned in RFC 5378 section 6 “Legends, Notices and Other Standardized Text in IETF Documents” and in the TLP 5.0 “Text to Be included in IETF Documents.” All of these elements may be used without a license.
21. The copyright notice on every RFC published under the rules in RFC 5378 states “Copyright IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors”. What does that mean?
As noted above, ownership of the copyright in each IETF Contribution is retained by its author(s). Once an IETF Document is published as an RFC, however, it includes contributions beyond those made by the original Contributors. In particular, the IETF Trust itself, through its contractor the RFC Editor and others, edits, combines, facilitates, formats, shapes and augments each RFC before it is published. Accordingly, the IETF Trust claims a joint ownership interest in the copyright in RFCs, in addition to the copyright held by individual Contributors in their Contributions.
The IETF Trust’s copyright notice began to be applied to IETF Documents with RFC 4748. The notice required by RFC 4748 is similar, but not identical, to that required by RFC 5378.
22. Some IETF Documents published before RFC 4748 came into effect carry a copyright notice stating “Copyright ISOC”. What does this mean?
Before the IETF Trust was formed, many intellectual property rights in IETF Documents were held by the Internet Society (ISOC). When the IETF Trust was formed, ISOC assigned all of its copyrights and other intellectual property rights in IETF Documents to the IETF Trust. RFC 4748 makes it clear that the IETF Trust, rather than ISOC, has a copyright in IETF Documents published after October 2006.
Because of ISOC’s initial transfer of copyright to the IETF Trust when it was formed in December 2005, subsequent transfer made after formation, and the revision of the copyright legend under RFC 4748, ISOC no longer holds any copyright or other intellectual property interest in IETF Documents.
However, neither the ISOC nor the IETF Trust copyright notices eliminate the authors’ copyright interest in their original IETF Contributions and the IETF Documents that include those Contributions.
23. The IETF copyright policy prohibits the inclusion of additional copyright notices in IETF Contributions and IETF Documents. Why?
Section 6 of RFC 5378 and earlier IETF copyright policies have prohibited the inclusion of additional copyright notices in IETF Documents except in very limited cases. Such additional copyright notices would be confusing and would not themselves convey any additional rights. The copyright notice required by RFC 5378 acknowledges both the IETF Trust and individual authors, and is thus sufficient to protect all interested parties.
Additional copyright notices may only be included in IETF Documents with pre-approval of the IAB, and is appropriate only when the IETF Document is the product of joint work between IETF and another standards group, or in similar limited circumstances.
24. Where should the copyright notice be placed in an IETF Document. Does placement have any legal effect?
Copyright notice is not required under U.S. law to obtain a copyright. However, there are certain legal benefits that derive from the use of copyright notices.
The U.S. Copyright Act only requires that a copyright notice be placed in “such manner and location as to give reasonable notice of the claim of copyright.” The Registrar of Copyrights has specified that, for books and periodicals, the first page, title page and last page of the work are appropriate places for the notice, though other locations may also be appropriate.
The TLP specifies that the IESG will determine the placement of the copyright notice on IETF Internet-Drafts, and the RFC Editor will determine the placement of the copyright notice on RFCs. The appropriate Alternate Stream manager will determine placement for Alternate Stream Documents.
25. Will the document formatting tools made available by IETF automatically include the correct legends in my submission?
Yes, though in some cases there may be a slight delay in updating these tools to include the precise wording required by the most current version of the TLP. In these cases, the IETF Trust will offer a “grace period” for compliance with the latest notice and legend requirements. The duration of this “grace period” will be posted either with the latest version of the TLP or in the release notes accompanying the posting of the TLP.