Subject: The copyright escape clause

From: "Christian Huitema" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 17:41:44 -0700

The "rights" document maintains the escape clause of 2026, in the
revised section "3.2 Notices re. Derivative Works and publication
rights", paragraphs b and c; there is a reference in section "2.3.
Granting of Rights and Permissions". Then, there is an explanation in
section "5.3 Right to produce derivative works":

   The right to produce derivative works is required for all IETF
   standards track documents and for most 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.

I think we have to be much more explicit. I have seen many instances in
which WG chairs have had to make decisions on "whether to allow
discussion" on a draft submitted under the escape clause. These
decisions are not algorithmic, and thus appear arbitrary. I think we
should be much more precise, and add text such as:

   If a document submitted to the IETF without granting the rights 
   to produce derivative work, that document cannot be advanced on 
   the standard track and cannot be listed as a "working group
document"; 
   it can however be used as a contribution to a working group debate.

We can debate whether this text should be added to a normative section
(2.3 or 3.2) or to an explanatory section (5.3).

-- Christian Huitema

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