Proposed license for IETF Contributions

[Simon Josefsson]

"Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm at toybox.placo.com> writes:

>>Please provide me with a reference for this.
>>
>
>
> http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wnp
>
> Under the subheading:
>
> WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?
>
> "Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and
> containing no original authorship"

It continues:

   (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape
   measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public
   documents or other common sources)

IETF documents are more technical than that, and they are usually the
first instance in history where that precise technical invention is
described.  That material does not qualify as common property.

> In short, all you have to do is have the author of whatever IETF standard
> simply declare
> his ENTIRE standard description as common property, and instantly it's
> not copyrightable,
> thus you now have no issue.

Except that I believe some IETF authors would not agree to putting
their work into the public domain.  I'm trying to create a license
that I believe would be acceptable to IETF contributors, and make it
aligned with BSD/GPL licenses.

Thanks,
Simon