Subject: WG Action: Intellectual Property Rights (ipr) (fwd)

From: Steve Bellovin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 20:04:50 -0400

We're now a working group.

------- Forwarded Message

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
To: IETF-Announce: ;
Subject: WG Action: Intellectual Property Rights (ipr)
Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 16:47:13 -0400
Sender: [email-masked]

A new IETF working group has been established in the General Area.
Please contact the Area Directors or WG CHairs for additional
information.

Intellectual Property Rights (ipr)
- ----------------------------------

 Current Status: Active Working Group

 Chair(s):
     Steve Bellovin  <[email-masked]>
     Rob Austein  <[email-masked]>

 General Area Director(s):
     Harald Alvestrand  <[email-masked]>

 General Area Advisor:
     Harald Alvestrand  <[email-masked]>

 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:[email-masked]
     To Subscribe:      [email-masked]
     Archive:           www.ietf.org/mail-archive/working-groups/ipr-wg/current/maillist.html

Description of Working Group:

The IETF and the Internet have greatly benefited from the free exchange 
of ideas and technology. For many years the IETF normal behavior was to 
standardize only unencumbered technology.

While the "Tao" of the IETF is still strongly oriented toward
unencumbered technology, we can and do make use of technology that has 
various encumbrances. One of the goals of RFC2026 "The Internet 
Standards Process -- Revision 3" was to make it easier for the IETF to 
make use of encumbered technology when it made sense to do so.

The IETF IPR policy, as embedded in RFC 2026 section 10, has proven
fairly successful. At the same time, a perceived lack of textual
clarity on some issues have made necessary the publication of 
clarifications such as the "note well" statement issued in every
registration package, the I-D boilerplate rules, and a huge number of 
discussions on specific IPR-related issues.

This working group is chartered with updating and clarifying section 10 
of BCP 9, RFC 2026, which deals with intellectual property rights, 
including, but not necessarily limited to, patent rights and
copyrights.

This working group will provide three documents:

o A BCP document, updating RFC 2026, which states the IETF
  IPR policy on rights relevant to the document publication
  process, such as copyright issues and trademark issues.

o A BCP document, updating RFC 2026, which states the IETF
  IPR policy on rights relevant to the use of IETF-standardized
  technology, such as patent-related claims

o An Informational document, which describes useful rules of thumb for 
  working group chairs and working group members when working on IPR 
  issues, as well as describing specific cases of IPR issues that have 
  been successfully worked out in the IETF process, and providing 
  references to specific examples of licensing statements and copyright 
  provisions that have proved useful or worrisome. In other words, we
  plan to document the running code of our process.

The working group will attempt to work in three phases:

1. Document existing IPR practice in the IETF

2. Identify issues with current IPR practice that need to be addressed

3. Modify the documents produced in step 1 to reflect the outcome of the 
   discussion of items identified in step 2.

If there consensus of the working group for a different IPR policy than 
the one described in RFC 2026, the working group will seek to amend its 
charter to make it clear that it is changing the status quo.

The working group will have a design team to assist with document
drafting and review. As always, design team drafts have no special
status, and are subject to amendment, ratification, and/or replacement
by the working group.

 Goals and Milestones:

   JUN 02       1st draft of updated IPR BCP document on documents - 
                documenting existing practice 

   JUN 02       1st draft of updated IPR BCP document on technology - 
                documenting existing practice 

   JUN 02       1st draft of IPR guidance document 

   JUL 02       List of issues that need to be discussed while revising the 
                documents 

   AUG 02       2nd draft of updated IPR BCP document on documents 

   AUG 02       2nd draft of updated IPR BCP document on technology 

   SEP 02       2nd draft of IPR guidance document 

   SEP 02       IPR BCP document on documents sent to IETF Last Call 

   DEC 02       IPR BCP document on technology sent to IETF Last Call 

   JAN 03       IPR guidance document submitted to IESG for publication 

   JAN 03       Conclude WG. 

------- End of Forwarded Message

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb (me)
		http://www.wilyhacker.com ("Firewalls" book)

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