Derivative Works

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.¶

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.¶

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This Internet-Draft will expire on 18 November 2026.¶

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.¶

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.¶

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This document updates Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust [RFC5378] in order to clarify and limit which contributions may include a restriction on derivative rights.¶

2. Conventions and Definitions

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶

3. Derivative Works

There is an expansive definition of "Contribution" in [RFC5378]. There is also a mechanism formally defined in Section 5.3 of that RFC that allows a Contributor to limit the right to produce derivative works. As written, this optional mechanism applies to all Contributions. Using this mechanism outside of specifications, for example, in electronic mail, makes it difficult for people to respond and inhibits collaboration. This behavior impedes the very idea of collaborating about the Internet over the Internet. The IESG has stated [IESG-DERIV] that derivative works limitations should only be applied to technical specifications.¶

This document narrows the use of this mechanism to technical specifications, such as Internet-Drafts or other complete specifications. It no longer applies to correspondence, such as public online IETF fora as defined in [RFC9945], appeals, minutes, or audio or video recordings of IETF meetings.¶

Such IETF correspondence MUST NOT include restrictions on derivative works. This restriction covers text that is intentionally inserted and also includes automatically inserted terms inserted by corporate email software. Both variations are disruptive.¶

It is always possible to publish an Internet-Draft with a restrictive derivative works clause.¶

When introducing a document with such a clause, care must be taken to note the restriction. This consideration applies to email and IETF meeting presentations.¶

All other rights Contributors provide to the IETF Trust [RFC5378] remain in place.¶

4. Security Considerations

This document has no direct impact on Internet security.¶

5. IANA Considerations

This document has no IANA actions.¶

6. References

Authors' Addresses