RFCs - insufficiently free? [LWN.net]

RFCs - insufficiently free?

Posted Jul 17, 2003 3:32 UTC (Thu) by Ross (subscriber, #4065)
In reply to: RFCs - insufficiently free? by wa1hco
Parent article: RFCs - insufficiently free?

First of all Ethernet is an IEEE standard.

I think the point is that the evolution of the standards (yes,
standards do change... parts are obsoleted, new sections are
added, requirements are better defined, etc.).

If the ISOC decides to halt development of the Internet
protocols, this license allows them to do so. Everyone
would have to start from scratch with new standards and be
very careful not to infringe any copyrights.

To address your concern it would be enough to require removal
of the RFC number and ISOC references in modified documents.

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RFCs - insufficiently free?

Posted Jul 24, 2003 19:40 UTC (Thu) by EricBackus (guest, #2816) [Link]

You wrote:

> If the ISOC decides to halt development of the Internet
> protocols, this license allows them to do so. Everyone
> would have to start from scratch with new standards and be
> very careful not to infringe any copyrights.

Remember that copyright protects a particular expression of
an idea, but not the idea itself. While ISOC may own the
particular expression of the ideas in an RFC, there is nothing
stopping you from writing something that you call an RFD, that
explains the same idea as an RFC but in different words.