RFC 3978:IETF Rights in Contributions
RFC-Ref

8. Contributions Not Subject to Copyright


   Certain documents, including those produced by the U.S. government
   and those which are in the public domain, may not be protected by the
   same copyright and other legal rights as other documents.
   Nevertheless, we ask each Contributor to grant to the IETF the same
   rights as he or she would grant, and to make the same
   representations, as though the IETF Contribution were protected by
   the same legal rights as other documents, and as though the
   Contributor could be able to grant these rights.  We ask for these
   grants and representations only to the extent that the Contribution
   may be protected.  We believe they are necessary to protect the ISOC,
   the IETF, the IETF Standards Process and all IETF participants, and
   also because the IETF does not have the resources or wherewithal to
   make any independent investigation as to the actual proprietary
   status of any document submitted to it.



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