Re: Rights in early RFCs

["John Levine" <[e-mail]>]

In article <[e-mail]> you write:
>> to publish a spec for how to do $foo over the Internet. Their spec 
>> quotes small parts of various RFCs to make the requirements clear for 
>> the vendors who will implement $foo because those vendors do not 
>> normally use IETF standards. ...

>That would seem to fall under fair use.  How could quoting a spec NOT be 
>considered fair use.

A) Fair use is what a US court says it is.  The law provides factors
for courts to weigh but no bright line rules.  Anyone who says that a
particular usage definitely is or isn't fair use without a court
decision to back it up doesn't understand the law.

B) Court decisions have been all over the place.  In one extreme case,
use of a single sentence was found to be infringing.  (It was from a
medical text, quoted in a cigarette ad.)

C) Copyright litigation is fantastically expensive, and in the U.S.,
even if you win, you usually still have to pay your own costs.  Don't
go there.

D) Fair use only applies in the U.S.  Some other countries have Fair
Dealing, but the rules are different, so if something is fair use in
the US, that doesn't mean it's fair dealing elsewhere.  Most other
countries also have moral rights which further constrain what you
can quote without permission.

It's not unreasonable for an SDO to want clear permission about what
it uses.

R's,
John