Internet DRAFT - draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale
draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale
Internet Engineering Task Force J. Arkko
Internet-Draft Ericsson
Intended status: Informational October 11, 2018
Expires: April 14, 2019
Discussion of the IASA 2.0 Changes as They Relate to the IETF Trust
draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-03
Abstract
This document is published to capture the rationale for the changes
introduced in RFC NNNN (RFC Editor: please replace NNNN with the RFC
number of [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update]), Update to the Process for
Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust.
At the time RFC NNNN was published, IETF administrative structure
changes ("IASA 2.0") had an impact on the IETF Trust because members
of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), which was
being phased out, had served as Trustees of the IETF Trust. This
document provides background on the past IETF Trust arrangements,
explains the effect of the rules in the founding documents during the
transition to the new arrangement, and provides a rationale for the
update.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on April 14, 2019.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. General Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Appendix A. Changes from Previous Versions . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Introduction
This document is published to capture the rationale for the changes
introduced in [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update].
At the time [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update] was published, IETF
administrative structure changes ("IASA 2.0") had an impact on the
IETF Trust [RFC4071] [RFC4371] [I-D.ietf-iasa2-struct]. This is
because members of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee
(IAOC), which was being phased out, had served as Trustees of the
IETF Trust. A minimal change regarding the selection of the trustees
is implemented by [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update].
This companion memo provides some background on the details of the
past IETF Trust arrangements, explains the effect of the rules in the
founding documents during the transition to the new arrangement, and
provides a rationale for the update.
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2. Background
The purpose of the IETF Trust is to acquire, hold, maintain, and
license certain existing and future intellectual property and other
property used in connection with the administration of the IETF
[RFC4371]. The intellectual property is, for instance, rights that
the IETF contributors grant for text in RFCs and Internet-Drafts.
The IETF Trust also manages trademarks such as "IETF" and domain
names such as "ietf.org". The IETF Trust is also serving the broader
Internet community by holding domains and trademarks associated with
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) [RFC7979].
The IETF Trust is a legal entity, registered in the Commonwealth of
Virginia [Trust-FD].
Previously, the members of the IAOC also served as ex officio
Trustees of the IETF Trust. The founding documents specify persons
eligible to become trustees as having to be then-current members of
the IAOC [Trust-FD]. The documents also specify that if for any
reason there are fewer than three individuals serving as Trustees,
then the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), or the IESG's
successor as the leadership of the IETF, shall appoint one or more
individuals to serve in a temporary capacity as Trustee(s) until
eligible persons can be found.
In the previous system there were eight IAOC members. Two were named
by the IETF Nominating Committee (NomCom), one by the IESG, one by
the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and one by the Internet
Society (ISOC) Board of Trustees. In addition, there were three ex
officio members via their roles as IETF Chair, ISOC CEO, and IAB
Chair. In addition, the IETF Administrative Director (IAD) served
also as one of the trustees.
3. General Approach
There were two basic approaches to resolving the issue with the
trustees, when the IAOC ceased to exist. One could have imagined
merging all IETF Trust functions in the new IASA structure and under
the new legal entity. This memo advocated a second approach where
the IETF Trust is kept independent.
The rationale for advocating the second approach is in part to
minimize changes to the IETF Trust while the IETF's administrative
structure is undergoing major change. In addition, the IETF Trust
and other administrative IETF processes are quite different. While
very important, the IETF Trust is a low-activity entity where changes
are minimal and gradual, and there are no pressing issues.
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4. Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected
At the time when the trustees served on both the IETF Trust and the
IAOC, many of the requirements for naming a particular group of
people were driven by the IAOC's requirements. For the IETF Trust in
the new model, some of those arrangements were able to be rethought,
both in terms of the number and source of the trustees, as well as
the desired qualifications and length of terms.
Several options were possible, of course. A newly designed naming
process could have been devised. The argument here is for a
relatively limited change, however, largely on the basis of the IETF
Trust arrangements generally working well, and on the relatively
modest expected time commitments combined with the need for very
careful management of the assets.
As a result, a smaller group of trustees appeared sufficient.
In addition, the terms for the trustees selected from the IETF
community could be set to longer than the two year period typical of
other IETF bodies.
One could have continued the practice of having the chairs and CEOs
from IETF, IAB, and Internet Society be trustees as well, but this
may not be necessary. In general, the tasks of the IETF Trust are
well defined, and while there is a need for coordination, it does not
need to be at the level of chairs or CEOs.
Given all this, one approach was to have trustees appointed by the
NomCom, IESG, and ISOC Board of Trustees. (One might also have
considered the IETF Administration LLC legal entity instead of the
Internet Society for this role. But the Internet Society is perhaps
more suitable for the role, given their focus on the broad use of the
IETF Trust assets and not merely administrative aspects).
If the same principles would continue to be used as were used in
previous appointments, then appointments performed by the NomCom
would need to be confirmed by another entity, which could be, for
instance, either the IESG or the IAB. The IESG had previously been
the confirming body for the IAOC, so it has been retained in that
role for the trustees.
5. Transition
When the new entity for IETF Administration LLC was set up, the IAOC
was expected to be discontinued soon thereafter. Fortunately, there
was no pressing need to change all the components of the IAOC and its
dependent organizations at the same time. As discussed above
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(Section 2), the IESG holds the ability to continue to name trustees.
And once the updated procedures were in place, the IETF Trust had its
management nominated in the usual manner, and the exceptional IESG
process was no longer needed.
6. Security Considerations
This memo has no security implications for the Internet.
7. IANA Considerations
This memo requests no action from IANA.
8. Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank other members of the earlier IASA 2.0
design team who were Brian Haberman, Eric Rescorla, Jason Livingood,
Joe Hall, and Leslie Daigle. The authors would also like to thank
Alissa Cooper, Ted Hardie, Andrew Sullivan, Brian Carpenter, Lucy
Lynch, and John Levine for interesting discussions in this problem
space, and Adrian Farrel, Tero Kivinen, Russ Housley, Benjamin Kaduk,
Adam Roach and Meral Shirazipour for careful review.
9. References
9.1. Normative References
[RFC4071] Austein, R., Ed. and B. Wijnen, Ed., "Structure of the
IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)", BCP 101,
RFC 4071, DOI 10.17487/RFC4071, April 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4071>.
[RFC4371] Carpenter, B., Ed. and L. Lynch, Ed., "BCP 101 Update for
IPR Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, DOI 10.17487/RFC4371,
January 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4371>.
9.2. Informative References
[I-D.ietf-iasa2-struct]
Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Record of
Proposed Structure of the IETF Administrative Support
Activity (IASA), Version 2.0", draft-ietf-iasa2-struct-06
(work in progress), September 2018.
[I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update]
Arkko, J. and T. Hardie, "Update to the Selection of
Trustees for the IETF Trust", draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-
update-00 (work in progress), September 2018.
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[RFC7979] Lear, E., Ed. and R. Housley, Ed., "Response to the IANA
Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) Request
for Proposals on the IANA Protocol Parameters Registries",
RFC 7979, DOI 10.17487/RFC7979, August 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7979>.
[Trust-FD]
IETF Trust, , "Founding Documents", February 2014
(https://trustee.ietf.org/founding-documents.html).
Appendix A. Changes from Previous Versions
RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon publication.
The version draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-03.txt made some
editorial corrections.
The version draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-02.txt made some
editorial corrections.
The version draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-01.txt includes changes
relating to last call comments. The changes are 1) indication of why
this document is being published 2) updates to references, 3) the
addition of empty security and IANA consideration sections, 4)
editorial changes necessary for a document that is also read later,
and not just used in discussions at this time.
The version draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-00.txt includes only
editorial and language updates.
The version draft-arkko-iasa2-trust-rationale-00.txt was the initial
version.
Author's Address
Jari Arkko
Ericsson
Kauniainen 02700
Finland
Email: jari.arkko@piuha.net
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