At 04:50 PM 6/7/00 +0000, Dawson, Peter D wrote:
->From: Scott Bradner [mailto:sob(_at_)harvard(_dot_)edu]
...
->the ISOC holds a copyright license on RFCs that permit them to be
->published and freely copied...
This is interesting... a couple of weeks ago
I remember a thread of Pete Loshin's saying
something about a 10 series release of various RFC's.
does this imply (if I understand you correctly)
that royalty payments (on such publications)
are made to both Authors/ISOC ??
The short answer is, neither the authors nor ISOC receive royalty payments
(any more than they receive royalties from any of the websites that publish
RFCs).
My understanding of the copyright terms is that they serve a purpose
similar to that of Open Source licenses: the content is "free" and the
copyright language serves to make sure that freedom is retained, no matter
what. Anything less would compromise the openness of the Internet. Allowing
(or even encouraging) publication of RFCs in book form serves (IMO) to make
the RFCs more accessible to more people.
For further clarification of the copyright issues, there are two primary
resources (although I must state up front that I am not a lawyer).
First, the copyright notice included in RFCs. This statement is published
in RFC 2026 (ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2026.txt), section 10.4.(C)*,
and is meant to be included with "all ISOC standards-related
documentation." It asserts that ISOC is the copyright holder to the RFC but
that others may publish the RFC without restriction as long as the
copyright notice is included in all copies.
This copyright statement is reproduced both in the text of the Morgan
Kaufmann collections (as part of all the RFCs, which are in turn reproduced
precisely as they appear online) and on the copyright page of the book.
In addition, the publisher asserts its own copyright on the compilation,
which includes (for example) the front matter (preface and introduction)
and the index.
The second item I reference is a note** presumably written by Jon Postel
(it is signed "Jon"--if I'm mistaken, I'd appreciate being corrected) and
published on the ISI/RFC editor site at
http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc-editor/rfc-copyright-story. Basically, it
states that anyone can publish a book of RFCs and copyright that
collection--and that can't stop anyone _else_ from doing the same.
I hope this helps...
-pl
* from RFC 2026:
---begin copyright statement---
"Copyright (C) The Internet Society (date). All Rights
Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and
furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or
otherwise explain it or assist in its implmentation may be
prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in
part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above
copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such
copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may
not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright
notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet
organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights
defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or
as required to translate it into languages other than English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will
not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or
assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided
on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE
OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE."
---end copyright statement---
** from ISI website:
---begin note---
Hi.
The Request For Comments (RFC) documents are intended to have wide
distribution.
1. Copying and distributing the whole RFC without any changes:
1a. The copying and free redistribution are generally encouraged.
1b. The inclusion of RFCs in other documents and collections that are
distributed for a fee is also encouraged, though in this case it is a
courtesy (i) to ask the RFC author and (ii) provide the RFC author
with a copy of the final document or collection. Anyone can takes
some RFCs, put them in a book, copyright the book, and sell it. This
in no way inhibits anyone else from doing the same thing, or inhibits
any other distribution of the RFCs.
2. Copying and distributing the whole RFC with changes in format,
font, etcetera:
2a. The same as case 1 with the addition that a note should be made
of the reformatting.
3. Copying and distributing portions of an RFC:
3a. As with any material excerpted from another source, proper credit
and citations must be provided.
4. Translating RFCs into other languages:
4a. Since wide distribution of RFCs is very desirable, translation
into other languages is also desirable. The same requirements and
courtesies should be followed in distributing RFCs in translation as
would be followed when distributing RFCs in the original language.
--jon.
---end note---
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