In article <BA3A23E0-18F0-4515-A760-4EF6DB1CD743@xxxxxxxxx> you write: >The author is the owner, and the IETF Trust is granted an unlimited copyright. Uh, no. >> What part of >> >> Copyright Notice >> >> Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the >> document authors. All rights reserved. >> >> is unclear? Quite a lot, actually. But it's all explained in RFC 5378. Contributors hold the copyright to their drafts, and grant a broad but limited license (which is not the same as a copyright) to the IETF Trust. The final RFC is a derivative work made by the IETF from the draft, which is why the RFC has a joint copyright notice. To return to the original question, the IETF has no obligation to accept contributions from anyone. If we wanted to make a rule that every I-D has to have the word "pickle" in the name, we could. R's, John