I am concerned that the current RFC Editor practice that limits the
number of authors is in conflict with the IETF IPR policies. The RFC
Editor currently limits the author count to five people. Recent IPR
WG discussions make it clear to me that authors retain significant copyright.
In one of the working groups in the Security Area, there is a
document with six authors on it. I asked the WG chairs to reduce the
author count in the hope of avoiding a problem down the road. At
that time, I was not aware of the copyright. Now, I think I gave the
WG Chairs inappropriate directions.
The IESG and the whole Internet Community needs clear direction on
this issue. I suspect that the IPR WG will be a part of the process
to resolve it. Also, the Tech Spec document, which is currently in
Last Call, many need to include a requirement that the RFC Editor
explicitly acknowledge copyright holders in some fashion.
Russ
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