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Re: [hackathon] What is the IPR policy for Hackathon? RE: [94all] IETF 94 - Hackathon Information

2015-09-14 09:30:12
on the matter of  issue of relations between the “formal” standards community 
and the  “open source” community , not exactly the issue of this email thread 
but close    ...  I am on an  ANSI IPR policy committee  Copyright-in-Software 
Task Force   working on a draft paper that describes  matters an SDO might 
contemplate when writing a standard that includes some mandatory use of 
software ... welcome insight that I might contribute to the ANSI TF

George T. Willingmyre
President GTW Associates

From: Miaofuyou (Miao Fuyou) 
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2015 10:10 PM
To: Benson Schliesser ; Sam Hartman 
Cc: hackathon(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org ; IETF Discussion 
Subject: RE: [hackathon] What is the IPR policy for Hackathon? RE: [94all] IETF 
94 - Hackathon Information

Thanks for bringing this to IAOC, Benson! 

 

A particular intricate problem is the potential IPR rule confliction between 
IETF and other open source community/foundation, if a project is brought to 
Hackathon from that community/foundation. This is especially problematic for 
patent, where usually many open sources require free licensing, contrastively 
IETF requires disclosure only if one knows. 

 

-        Miao

 

From: Benson Schliesser [mailto:bensons(_at_)queuefull(_dot_)net] 
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 6:20 AM
To: Sam Hartman
Cc: Brian E Carpenter; IETF Discussion; Miaofuyou (Miao Fuyou); Charles Eckel 
(eckelcu); hackathon(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: [hackathon] What is the IPR policy for Hackathon? RE: [94all] IETF 
94 - Hackathon Information

 

On Wed, Sep 9, 2015 at 5:15 PM, Sam Hartman <hartmans-ietf(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu> 
wrote:

"Brian" == Brian E Carpenter 
<brian(_dot_)e(_dot_)carpenter(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> writes:

    Brian> If somebody wants to provide their hackathon code to the
    Brian> IETF, they could submit an Internet Draft whose body consists
    Brian> of their code, between <CODE BEGINS> and <CODE ENDS>. Then it
    Brian> becomes an IETF contribution with a Simplified BSD licence,
    Brian> as I understand the IETF Trust's legal provisions.

[...]
I think marking something as code has nothing to do with the rights that
the IETF gets, it only affects whether the rest of the world can
actually use our contributions  in open-source contexts.

 

I think that both of you are correct, as quoted above.

 

Of course, please note well that a Contribution to the IETF does not 
necessarily have to take the form of a document. Thus, I think it is reasonable 
to question whether code developed during the Hackathon is considered a 
Contribution to the IETF. I am uncertain whether Hackathon code is inherently 
Contributed by nature of being developed under the Note Well etc, or whether 
its Contribution status is optional based on the author's intent. I believe the 
latter is the case, but that is an open question to be confirmed. I've asked 
the rest of the IAOC Legal Committee and the IETF's counsel to discuss this 
question.

 

Even if code developed at a Hackathon is a Contribution (either inherently or 
optionally), under IETF IPR rules the original author retains ownership rights 
to the work and thus should be able to contribute it to non-IETF open source 
projects as long as those projects accept contributions under a compatible 
license. Likewise, existing "outside" open source code that is used at a 
Hackathon is not necessarily a Contribution to the IETF unless the IPR owner 
(e.g. original author) intends for it to be Contributed. Both of these aspects 
(outgoing and incoming code) need to be described more clearly for the benefit 
of the Hackathon community, and so I've also asked the IAOC Legal Committee and 
IETF counsel to discuss this topic as well.

 

We will attempt to provide some additional guidance to the community after 
we've performed appropriate diligence.

 

-Benson

 
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