--On Tuesday, January 27, 2015 14:23 +0000 Tobias Gondrom
<tobias(_dot_)gondrom(_at_)gondrom(_dot_)org> wrote:
The IETF Trust has been requested by the IESG and RFC Editor
to provide a license in cases
where RFCs contain Templates. The Trustees propose modifying
the Trust Legal Provisions
(TLP) based upon a need to extract and fill in text from RFCs
that contain Templates. E.g.
...
The Trustees' response is a proposed change to the TLP that
addresses the issue for this and
future RFCs. The change enables specific text in an RFC that
is designated as a Template to be
subject to a new provision in the TLP that says that
extraction and modification are authorized.
...
We would like hear your thoughts on changing the Trust Legal
Provisions to accommodate the inclusion
of RFC Templates. Comments will be considered that are
received through 25th February.
Tobias,
IANAL (other disclaimers incorporated by hand-waving), but a
plain-English reading of this indicated that the text gives
permission to modify the text of the template itself. That
raises all of the issues that caused us to try to make
enforceable copyright claims on the RFC series in the first
place-- someone could use such derived text (maliciously or not)
to mislead others about IETF statements, intent, and
requirements.
I'll leave it to the Trustees and Counsel to determine whether
that threat is worth worrying about, but it seems to me it would
be easy, if desired, to allow copying but restrict it, either by
intended use or by not allowing the template text to be
modified, only that the template be filled in and used as
specified, or both.
john