Re: Last Call: draft-legg-xed-asd (Abstract Syntax Notation X (ASN.X)) to Proposed Standard

Hi!  These documents contains normative ASN.1 modules which, if I
understand the documents correctly, is typically included in
implementations of this standard.  Is that correct?

The modules contain this notice:

   -- Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2006). This version of
   -- this ASN.1 module is part of RFC XXXX; see the RFC itself
   -- for full legal notices.

The legal notices used by the IETF doesn't grant third parties
(including implementers of your standard) the right to include
portions of documents in their implementations.  The rights granted by
RFC 3978/4748 in section 3.3, including the right to extract code
portions from documents, are only granted to "IETF Trust and the
IETF", and there is no other license to indicate that any similar
rights are granted to third parties.

This raises problems for some implementers, because they can't
implement your standard if they use the ASN.1 module.  The alternative
for them, to re-specify the ASN.1 module from the text (if that is at
all possible), is bad for interoperability.  If you want to enable
smooth implementation of your standard by everyone (which I hope!),
here is how to solve it:

There are several solutions to this problem.  A simple solution that
has been used successfully in several documents (RFC 3492, RFC 4398
and a few others) is to add, after the above notice, the following
notice:

   -- Regarding this entire document or any portion of it (including
   -- the pseudocode and C code), the author makes no guarantees and
   -- is not responsible for any damage resulting from its use.  The
   -- author grants irrevocable permission to anyone to use, modify,
   -- and distribute it in any way that does not diminish the rights
   -- of anyone else to use, modify, and distribute it, provided that
   -- redistributed derivative works do not contain misleading author
   -- or version information.  Derivative works need not be licensed
   -- under similar terms.

Note that should be added to all places where the notice about IETF
Trust and legal notices are added.

This notice would give third parties the necessary rights they need to
be able to use the normative ASN.1 module from your documents.

Btw, you'd might want to modify the text slightly, so that "pseudocode
and C code" becomes "ASN.1 module".  If you don't want to grant the
rights to the entire document, grant them only for the ASN.1 module.

Best regards, and thanks in advance,
Simon

The IESG <iesg-secretary@ietf.org> writes:

> The IESG has received a request from an individual submitter to consider
> the following documents:
>
> - 'Abstract Syntax Notation X (ASN.X) Representation of Encoding 
>    Instructions for the XML Encoding Rules (XER) '
>    <draft-legg-xed-asd-xerei-03.txt> as a Proposed Standard
> - 'Encoding Instructions for the Robust XML Encoding Rules (RXER) '
>    <draft-legg-xed-rxer-ei-04.txt> as a Proposed Standard
> - 'Abstract Syntax Notation X (ASN.X) Representation of Encoding 
>    Instructions for the Generic String Encoding Rules (GSER) '
>    <draft-legg-xed-asd-gserei-03.txt> as a Proposed Standard
> - 'Robust XML Encoding Rules (RXER) for Abstract Syntax Notation One 
>    (ASN.1) '
>    <draft-legg-xed-rxer-07.txt> as a Proposed Standard
> - 'Abstract Syntax Notation X (ASN.X) '
>    <draft-legg-xed-asd-07.txt> as a Proposed Standard
>
> The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
> final comments on this action.  Please send substantive comments to the
> ietf@ietf.org mailing lists by 2007-02-14. Exceptionally, 
> comments may be sent to iesg@ietf.org instead. In either case, please 
> retain the beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.
>
> The file can be obtained via
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-legg-xed-asd-xerei-03.txt
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-legg-xed-rxer-ei-04.txt
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-legg-xed-asd-gserei-03.txt
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-legg-xed-rxer-07.txt
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-legg-xed-asd-07.txt
>
>
> IESG discussion can be tracked via
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/pidtracker.cgi?command=view_id&dTag=10739&rfc_flag=0

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