Re: non free IETF's RFC documents in .orig.tar.gz

[Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net>]

Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> writes:

> Are all RFCs non-free?  Only some after a particular date or with
> particular statements in them?  I'm assuming the issue is that no explicit
> right to modification is granted in the RFC itself?

Nearly all of them are non-free because they do not permit
modification, on the mistaken theory that this is necessary for
standards documents.

It's not an oversight....the RFC editors have made a careful and
deliberate (even if incorrect) decision.

There may be exceptions for particular RFCs, of course, but this is
the general rule, and IIRC, it is rigidly applied in the case of
internet standards RFCs.

Thomas