IETF Shoots Itself in the Foot
The IETF recently introduced new rules for all Internet Drafts and RFCs that require contributors to grant copyright and trademark licences. This is a perfectly sensible thing to do, of course, but it seems to have introduced an unforeseen problem: it may no longer possible to produce revised versions of old RFCs, particularly if the original authors are dead, as is the case for SMTP, for example.
Oops! This is a great example of why you really need to get your intellectual property rights in order from the start, or you’ve got one hell of a mess to clear up.