Subject: Re: Copyright statements in drafts

From: Magnus Westerlund <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 10:53:05 +0200

Hi Sam,

Sam Hartman wrote:
> As a WG chair I'd want tho copyright assigned at the time an item
> becomes a WG document.  If you do anything else, then you may find
> yourself in a position where you want to take text from a document but
> cannot do so.
> 
> Copyright should go along with change control.

I agree with this, an WG document need the copyright statement. However 
as I understand it is sufficient with this one:

       "Copyright (C) The Internet Society (year).  This document is
       subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP
       78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their
       rights."

However my question was in relation to any draft author if he also 
includes the following statement in the "Status of this Memo" section:

Copyright Notice

    Copyright (C) The Internet Society (year).  All Rights Reserved.

In view they seem to be a bit contradicting. The lower one states all 
rights reserved, while the from RFC 3667 does not give all rights to 
ISOC. Thus I would like a clarification on this.

Thanks

Magnus Westerlund

Multimedia Technologies, Ericsson Research EAB/TVA/A
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ericsson AB                | Phone +46 8 4048287
Torshamsgatan 23           | Fax   +46 8 7575550
S-164 80 Stockholm, Sweden | mailto: [email-masked]

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From: Magnus Westerlund <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 09:16:54 +0200

Thanks,

It has so far been an intersting discussion. However I have still not 
received a response to my real question, is it okay to combine this 
statement:

 > Copyright Notice
 >
 >    Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).  All Rights Reserved.

with the RFC 3667 defined statement:

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).  This document is subject to 
the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as 
set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.

in a internet draft? The RFCs are apperantly okay with it as the RFC 
editor is publishing them that way now. But what effect has this? To my 
non lawyer eyes the "All Rights Reservered" clashes with the RFC 3667 
statement. Clarification on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Magnus Westerlund

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From: [email-masked] (Scott Bradner)
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 08:25:02 -0400 (EDT)

>  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).  All Rights Reserved.

there is no current requirement for "All Rights Reserved"

that was changed to what you quote:
  "This document is subject to 
  the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as 
  set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights."

Scott

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From: Magnus Westerlund <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 15:02:57 +0200

Thanks Scott,

I do now understand there is no requirment to use the "All Rights 
Reserved" however, what is the effect when a draft authors do use it?

Does he/she then sign all his rights to ISOC, in contradiction to the 
statement in RFC 3667?

And why is it that the RFCs that is currently published contains both 
statements?

Cheers

Magnus

-- 

Magnus Westerlund

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From: [email-masked] (Scott Bradner)
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 09:13:44 -0400 (EDT)

> Reserved" however, what is the effect when a draft authors do use it?

that should be over ridden by RFC 3667 since RFC 3667 is the IETF copyright 
ruleset

> Does he/she then sign all his rights to ISOC, in contradiction to the 

no - at most the "all rights reserved" would be seen as applying to the
instance of the document that is the ID or RFC - that does not
limit the rights that the author(s) retain when they offer a document
to the IETF - its less confusing to use the new text but I do not
think it makes any legal difference

> And why is it that the RFCs that is currently published contains both 

history & miscommunication - I'll try to fix the latter

Scott

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From: "T.J.Kniveton" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 16:12:21 -0700

People,

Can we please take discussion of opinions on copyright law to another 
venue than the wgchairs list? If you want to know about US copyright 
law, just read the US copyright office's page on copyright basics

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

or something similar (i.e. Berne convention, your country's copyright 
law,..). It will answer all of the questions about copyright notices 
and transfer of copyright ownership, etc.

TJ