Proposed IESG statement on referencing documents behind a paywall

[Suresh Krishnan <[e-mail]>]

Hi chairs,
  In the past we have dealt with a few drafts that have had normative references to paywalled documents and we have dealt with them on a case-by-case basis (usually during or after IETF last call). In order to get the working groups involved earlier in the process, the IESG is working on issuing a statement on how to deal with such drafts and we would greatly appreciate input from WG chairs on this topic. This is the proposed text of the statement

*** START TEXT ***

As described in Section 7.1 of RFC 2026, RFCs may have normative 
references on external standards.

In some cases, however, those references are themselves not generally
available (for instance, they might be accessible only after paying
a fee). This can interfere both with the ability of implementers
to implement the protocol as well as with the ability of the IETF
community to review it.

In such cases:

1. The WG MUST be explicitly informed of any such normative reference
 and the WG MUST reach consensus that it is acceptable. The 
 document shepherd MUST include this information in the shepherd 
 writeup.

2. The reference MUST be explicitly noted as part of the IETF Last
 Call. If such a note is omitted, the last call MUST be repeated
 after including it.

*** END TEXT ***

Please go over this text and let me know if you have any concerns, comments, or additions by 2019/06/26. 

Thanks
Suresh