idnits 2.17.00 (12 Aug 2021) /tmp/idnits11940/draft-halpern-gendispatch-antitrust-02.txt: Checking boilerplate required by RFC 5378 and the IETF Trust (see https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/1id-guidelines.txt: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/checklist : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Miscellaneous warnings: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == The copyright year in the IETF Trust and authors Copyright Line does not match the current year -- The document date (December 2021) is 150 days in the past. Is this intentional? Checking references for intended status: Best Current Practice ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (See RFCs 3967 and 4897 for information about using normative references to lower-maturity documents in RFCs) No issues found here. Summary: 0 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 1 warning (==), 1 comment (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Network Working Group J. M. Halpern, Ed. 3 Internet-Draft Ericsson 4 Intended status: Best Current Practice B. Biddle 5 Expires: 10 June 2022 Biddle Law PC 6 J. Daley 7 IETF Administration LLC 8 December 2021 10 Antitrust Guidelines for IETF Particiants 11 draft-halpern-gendispatch-antitrust-02 13 Abstract 15 This document specifies policy for IETF participants on compliance 16 with antitrust laws and how to reduce antitrust risks in connection 17 with IETF activities. 19 Status of This Memo 21 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 22 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 24 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 25 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 26 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 27 Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 29 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 30 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 31 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 32 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 34 This Internet-Draft will expire on 4 June 2022. 36 Copyright Notice 38 Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 39 document authors. All rights reserved. 41 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 42 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/ 43 license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. 44 Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights 45 and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components 46 extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as 47 described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are 48 provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License. 50 Table of Contents 52 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 53 2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 54 3. Legal Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 55 4. Existing BCPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 56 5. Antitrust Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 57 6. Escalation of antitrust-related concerns . . . . . . . . . . 4 58 7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 59 8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 60 9. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 61 10. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 62 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 64 1. Introduction 66 Standards development frequently requires collaboration between 67 competitors. Cooperation among competitors can spark concerns about 68 antitrust law or competition law violations (antitrust law and 69 competition law are used here synonymously). Certain actions taken 70 by a company that holds a dominant market position can similarly 71 spark concerns about competition law violations. This document 72 specifies policy for IETF participants about how to reduce antitrust 73 risks in connection with IETF activities. 75 2. Terminology 77 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 78 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and 79 "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 80 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all 81 capitals, as shown here. 83 3. Legal Advice 85 The IETF does not provide legal advice to participants, and instead 86 encourages participants to obtain independent legal advice as needed. 87 IETF participants should always consult with their own counsel when 88 antitrust or competition law-related questions arise. 90 4. Existing BCPs 92 Compliance with the BCPs that document the established rules and 93 norms of the IETF facilitates compliance with antitrust law, as the 94 IETF structure and processes are intended to mitigate antitrust 95 risks. As a reminder, participants are already required to comply 96 with the following policies documented in the BCPs: 98 * The Internet Standards Process as described in BCP 9 [BCP9] , 99 which is designed to "provide a fair, open, and objective basis 100 for developing, evaluating, and adopting Internet Standards," and 101 provides robust procedural rules, including an appeals process. 103 * The Working Group Guidelines and Procedures described in BCP 25 104 [BCP25] , which emphasize requirements for "open and fair 105 participation and for thorough consideration of technical 106 alternatives," and describe IETF's consensus-based decision-making 107 processes. 109 * The IETF framework that participants engage in their individual 110 capacity, not as company representatives, and "use their best 111 engineering judgment to find the best solution for the whole 112 Internet, not just the best solution for any particular network, 113 technology, vendor, or user," as described in BCP 54 [BCP54] . 115 * The IETF's intellectual property rights policies as set forth in 116 BCP 78 [BCP78] and BCP 79 [BCP79] ; these policies are carefully 117 designed to "benefit the Internet community and the public at 118 large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others." 120 * The established conflict of interest policies, such as the IESG 121 Conflict of Interest Policy, the IAB Conflict of Interest Policy 122 or the IETF LLC Conflict of Interest Policy, if and when 123 applicable. 125 5. Antitrust Policy 127 All IETF participants MUST behave lawfully when engaged in IETF 128 activities, including by following applicable antitrust laws. While 129 antitrust laws vary between jurisdictions, IETF participants SHOULD 130 NOT assume that they need only comply with the laws of the 131 jurisdiction they reside in as the laws of multiple jurisdictions may 132 apply. Accordingly IETF participants SHOULD NOT engage in or 133 otherwise support any of the following: 135 * anti-competitive agreements between two or more independent market 136 operators 138 * abusive behaviour by companies holding a dominant position on any 139 given market 141 6. Escalation of antitrust-related concerns 143 Participants SHOULD report potential antitrust concerns in the 144 context of IETF activities through the following channels: IETF Chair 145 (chair@ietf.org), the IETF LLC executive director (exec- 146 director@ietf.org), the IETF legal counsel (legal@ietf.org), or via 147 the IETF LLC whistleblower service. 149 7. IANA Considerations 151 No values are assigned in this document, no registries are created, 152 and there is no action assigned to the IANA by this document. 154 8. Security Considerations 156 This document may be considered to document means to avoid risks to 157 the IETF and IETF participants related to antitrust. One may 158 consider those to be security considerations. Other than that, this 159 document introduces no known security aspects to the IETF or IETF 160 participants. 162 9. Normative References 164 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 165 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, 166 DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, 167 . 169 [RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 170 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, 171 May 2017, . 173 [BCP9] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 174 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996. 176 Dusseault, L. and R. Sparks, "Guidance on Interoperation 177 and Implementation Reports for Advancement to Draft 178 Standard", BCP 9, RFC 5657, September 2009. 180 Housley, R., Crocker, D., and E. Burger, "Reducing the 181 Standards Track to Two Maturity Levels", BCP 9, RFC 6410, 182 October 2011. 184 Resnick, P., "Retirement of the "Internet Official 185 Protocol Standards" Summary Document", BCP 9, RFC 7100, 186 December 2013. 188 Kolkman, O., Bradner, S., and S. Turner, "Characterization 189 of Proposed Standards", BCP 9, RFC 7127, January 2014. 191 Dawkins, S., "Increasing the Number of Area Directors in 192 an IETF Area", BCP 9, RFC 7475, March 2015. 194 Halpern, J., Ed. and E. Rescorla, Ed., "IETF Stream 195 Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus", BCP 9, RFC 8789, 196 June 2020. 198 200 [BCP25] Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and 201 Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998. 203 Wasserman, M., "Updates to RFC 2418 Regarding the 204 Management of IETF Mailing Lists", BCP 25, RFC 3934, 205 October 2004. 207 Resnick, P. and A. Farrel, "IETF Anti-Harassment 208 Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 7776, March 2016. 210 Resnick, P. and A. Farrel, "Update to the IETF Anti- 211 Harassment Procedures for the Replacement of the IETF 212 Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) with the IETF 213 Administration LLC", BCP 25, RFC 8716, February 2020. 215 217 [BCP54] Moonesamy, S., Ed., "IETF Guidelines for Conduct", BCP 54, 218 RFC 7154, March 2014. 220 222 [BCP78] Bradner, S., Ed. and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights 223 Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378, 224 November 2008. 226 228 [BCP79] Bradner, S. and J. Contreras, "Intellectual Property 229 Rights in IETF Technology", BCP 79, RFC 8179, May 2017. 231 233 10. Informative References 234 Authors' Addresses 236 Joel M. Halpern (editor) 237 Ericsson 238 P. O. Box 6049 239 Leesburg, VA 20178 240 United States of America 242 Email: joel.halpern@ericsson.com 244 Brad Biddle 245 Biddle Law PC 246 650 NE Holladay Street, Suite 1600 247 Portland, OR 97232 248 United States of America 250 Email: brad@biddle.law 252 Jay Daley 253 IETF Administration LLC 254 1000 N. West Street, Suite 1200 255 Wilimington, DE 19801 256 United States of America 258 Email: jay@staff.ietf.org