Re: Community Input on change to the Trust Legal Provisions to accommodate the inclusion of RFC Templates

[Sam Hartman <[e-mail]>]

>>>>> "John" == John C Klensin <[e-mail]> writes:

    John> Tobias,

    John> IANAL (other disclaimers incorporated by hand-waving), but a
    John> plain-English reading of this indicated that the text gives
    John> permission to modify the text of the template itself.  That
    John> raises all of the issues that caused us to try to make
    John> enforceable copyright claims on the RFC series in the first
    John> place-- someone could use such derived text (maliciously or
    John> not) to mislead others about IETF statements, intent, and
    John> requirements.

I'd like to specifically disagree with John and say that I'd like to see
the trust be very liberal in grating license exceptions when the IETF
purposes are served.
There are significant  costs to asking the trust to be more liberal when
we discover that our needs are not  met by our licensing.
I have always disagreed that there is significant harm that will happen
if people modify IETF documents  especially if those modifications are
labeled.

Especially when the IETF's purposes are served by allowing people to
modify and fill in templates I hope that  we can choose to be liberal.

Examples of things that might require modification of templates:

* Turning a template into an HTML web form

* Turning a template into some sort of wizard to  collect the
  information

* Including a template in an open-source product that requires a liberal
  license.

I believe the IETF's purposes are typically served by all of the above,
so I believ it is important to be very liberal in our licensing here.

--Sam