Re: Copyright status of early RFCs

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>What is much less clear is the issues surrounding excerpts, or
>derivative works. The original query pretty clearly asked/asserted
>whether older RFCs were "in the public domain".  That's pretty far
>removed from "republication in their entirety".

Actually, what he has in mind is indeed republication in their
entirety.

>IANAL, but if you've followed discussions in places like the IPR WG,
>it doesn't take much to conclude that this is a complicated space in
>which rules interpreted by real lawyers play a big role.

Since approximately my entire income depends on copyright law (I write
books), I have looked at Title 17 and its interpretation pretty
closely.  I have to conclude that given the facts surrounding the
early RFCs: pre-1976, no copyright notice, many written on government
contract, and a history of widespread copying and reuse without
explicit permission, it'd be extremely hard to make a case that there
were any limits on their use.

R's,
John


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