[CMC] Informing CESG and CMC of this request

Thu Jul 30 04:17:53 EDT 2026

Dear members of CCSDS CMC and CESG,

This is to inform you of a request we received from our own retired member, Peter Shames.  Please read this from the bottom to start the initial discussion.

No action is needed; just wanted to share with you that other organizations are proposing the “re-use” of our material.  We currently do not have a mechanism to control this.  We have some limited copyrights, and this group will give us credit.

I will soon respond to them.

Opinions and comments are welcome.

Thank you
Sami

From: peters at spacestandards.org <peters at spacestandards.org>
Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 4:13 PM
To: Asmar, Sami W (US 4200) <sami.w.asmar at jpl.nasa.gov>; Rodriguez, Shannon (GSFC-5660) <shannon.rodriguez-1 at nasa.gov>; Daniel Fischer <daniel.fischer at esa.int>
Cc: peters at spacestandards.org <peters at spacestandards.org>; Fred Slane <freds at spacestandards.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Request for formal permission to reuse CCSDS 311.0-M-2 and related materials

Hi Sami, at al,

I believe that I understand your concerns, and I’ll try to address them in this reply.  I think that I, and SIF, have already demonstrated our interest in supporting the work of CCSDS.  This additional effort of ours is intended to operationalize what are, at this point, “just” standards, practices, or concepts that must be operationalized in order to provide delivered benefit.  CCSDS delivers documents that have been vetted by agency review.  Agencies, observers, and associates must then turn these into missions, ground systems, spacecraft and applied processes in order for them to deliver value.  What we propose is just another, somewhat novel, instance of this well understood process.

I do want to point out that SIF has already contributed in several ways to CCSDS:

1) By assisting in bringing CCSDS standards into the awareness other organizations, and increasing their uptake, including ISO TC20/SC14, CONFERS, and OMG Systems Modeling Community (SMC).
2) By assisting the US Office of Space Commerce (OSC) in understanding how CCSDS and SC14 standards may be applied in current day space system applications.
3) By bringing well thought out and documented suggestions for how to improve current CCSDS (and SC14) standards back to these organizations to improve the quality of existing and planned publications.

This is all concrete and documented effort.

In the context of the specific questions that were raised I’ll provide these replies in-line:

  *   Protecting the IP of the agencies that invest in this work:  The additional works that SIF plans will adopt (and credit) the existing IP.  In addition, the proposed future works that we wish to pursue will work to operationalize selected standards and practices.  In this regard, given that the IP source will be acknowledged, this is not different in kind than any other project or product that uses and references CCSDS standards in the process of producing and delivering new products or services.
  *   Protecting the long-term interests of the CCSDS organization:  As noted above, SIF has already demonstrated its willingness to continue to contribute to CCSDS.  Beyond that, we believe that providing new, derivative, works that leverage and acknowledge CCSDS IP will only act to enhance the long term interests of CCSDS.
  *   Making sure all users have equal access and no one group adds their own restrictions:  As has been done in the past, these works will, in due time, be published as widely as is possible, in relevant and respected venues.  This may include: CONFERS, INCOSE, OMG, Space Ops, AIAA, IEEE, and other respected venues.  There will be no other “restrictions” on any SIF products than are customary and usual in other products that adopt CCSDS standards.  This sort of adoption, realization, implementation, and even commercial “productization” is common practice.
  *   Making sure the standards are used as designed and not picked by preferred pieces only: It’s not really clear to me just what is meant by this.  It seems to be suggesting that SIF may be asked to adopt the entirety of the CCSDS standards suite and not just “preferred pieces”.  But surely you cannot mean this.  Every mission (or associated company) chooses those standards that it finds of value for its purposes, acknowledges those, and leaves the rest as not relevant.  Please be more specific as to what this concern might be.

So, to be clear, you are asking for a letter that permits you, Fred, and SIF to use this material . . . how?

As we said in the original letter:

We wish to create derivative works that use the concepts, words, figures, and tables verbatim.  We also wish to utilize any and all of these materials in other derivative ways.  We have, and will, continue to, give full attribution of the source of the concepts and materials.

The specific CCSDS documents that we are focused on right now include the following CCSDS publications, at a minimum:

  *   Reference Architecture for Space Data Systems (RASDS) as the conceptual architecture framework for many other standards.
  *   Security Architecture for Space Data Systems
  *   Application and Support Layer Architecture
  *   Space Communications Cross Support—Architecture Requirements & Description Documents
  *   Reference Architecture for Space Information Management

These documents, by their very nature, identify many other CCSDS standards and provide an architectural framework within which to understand them, document their use, and deploy them.  As such, this approach may touch on many other CCSDS standards, but the primary focus right now is these frameworks, all of which derive from and are related to RASDS.  The specific derivative works that we have been working on utilize the RASDS conceptual architecture framework to create processes and tools that can be used to document and analyze the architectures of space systems, and of other, related, architecture frameworks, to assess their clarity in how they describe their subject matter and also whether they are compliant with CCSDS (or other) standards and guidelines.  This was, from the outset, one of the primary purposes for which RASDS was created.

We do believe that none of this is in any way mis-aligned with CCSDS goals and that the addition of such capabilities can, in fact, only enhance the appropriate adoption and use of CCSDS standards.

Is this a sufficient description of the SIF interests and intent?

Best regards, Peter

    [SIF Logo.png]

Space Infrastructure Foundation

Peter Shames
Systems Architect - Member of Technical Staff
peters at spacestandards.org
+1.310.955.0675

On Jul 29, 2026, at 1:36 PM, Asmar, Sami W (US 4200) <sami.w.asmar at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

Hi Peter,

Thanks for reaching out on this subject.

As far as:  We wish to create derivative works that use the concepts, words, figures, and tables verbatim.  We also wish to utilize any and all of these materials in other derivative ways.  We have, and will, continue to, give full attribution of the source of the concepts and materials.

We are in support of seeing the community at large benefit from CCSDS products with the reasonable re-use clause.  Our goals include:

  *   Protecting the IP of the agencies that invest in this work
  *   Protecting the long-term interests of the CCSDS organization
  *   Making sure all users have equal access and no one group adds their own restrictions
  *   Making sure the standards are used as designed and not picked by preferred pieces only

So, to be clear, you are asking for a letter that permits you, Fred, and SIF to use this material . . . how? And will you publish your derivative work somewhere that might cause any potential confusion to others in the future?

Just trying to be clear on the expectations from us.

Sami

From: peters at spacestandards.org <peters at spacestandards.org>
Date: Friday, July 24, 2026 at 12:01 PM
To: secretariat at mailman.ccsds.org <secretariat at mailman.ccsds.org>; Asmar, Sami W (US 4200) <sami.w.asmar at jpl.nasa.gov>; Rodriguez, Shannon (GSFC-5660) <shannon.rodriguez-1 at nasa.gov>
Cc: peters at spacestandards.org <peters at spacestandards.org>; Fred Slane <freds at spacestandards.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Request for formal permission to reuse CCSDS 311.0-M-2 and related materials

Dear CCSDS Secretariat,

I am working within a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization called the Space Infrastructure Foundation (SIF).  There is a website at https://www.spacestandards.org/<https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://www.spacestandards.org/__;!!PvBDto6Hs4WbVuu7!KwosYUBxDhHoYrISdJdBc-HzXbPJXGdwhlUHAjjVT-kz14UPmd5oIooqGIRJN25WRhU2QZ7XfxA9wgJmdDYQAtRMt-6D$>.  SIF has been engaged in CCSDS work for years, and it also supports ISO TC20/SC14.  Until i retired in Feb 2025 I was the JPL Data Standards Manager and the CCSDS Systems Engineering Area Director.   I am very familiar with CCSDS standards, processes, and operations.

As part of the SIF work we have been using the Reference Architecture for Space Data Systems (RASDSv2), CCSDS 311.0-M-2, to describe and analyze complex space systems architectures.  We are doing this in a CCSDS context, within ISO TC20/SC14, and in support of the US Office of Space Commerce.  We wish to create derivative works that use the concepts, words, figures, and tables verbatim.  We also wish to utilize any and all of these materials in other derivative ways.  We have, and will, continue to, give full attribution of the source of the concepts and materials.

CCSDS does not appear to have any explicit Copyright policy.  To my knowledge it never has.  It is an international, volunteer, consensus, standards organization whose members are the eleven member space agencies.  The standards, recommendations, procedures, and reports are all made freely available for world-wide use, and I know, from experience, that agencies and others are encouraged to use, adopt, adapt, and even translate these documents into other languages.

The only kinds of “copyright” statements that I can find anywhere in the CCSDS website or literature are things like this, copied from the CCSDS website, https://ccsds.org/publications/reference-models/<https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://ccsds.org/publications/reference-models/__;!!PvBDto6Hs4WbVuu7!KwosYUBxDhHoYrISdJdBc-HzXbPJXGdwhlUHAjjVT-kz14UPmd5oIooqGIRJN25WRhU2QZ7XfxA9wgJmdDYQAi_3eqV4$>

Reproduction Permission Statement for Publications

In general, reasonable reuse of materials published in CCSDS documents is permitted with attribution, and reprint permission can be provided in writing for those organizations that require formal permission statements. Reprint requests should be submitted to secretariat at mailman.ccsds.org<mailto:secretariat at mailman.ccsds.org>.

The SIF, and I for my own research and/or potentially commercial purposes, wish to make use of RASDS, and other CCSDS documents such as Security and other reference architectures, in ways that we believe fit this “reasonable reuse” clause.  In order to make this legal, copyright, and reuse situation completely clear we are formally requesting written letters confirming reuse and reprint permission.

We would like these in the following names:

  1.  Space Infrastructure Foundation (SIF)
  2.  Peter Shames, and any enterprises he might form or be a part of
  3.  Fred Slane, and any enterprises he might form or be a part of

Is this possible?

Very best regards, Peter

    [SIF Logo.png]

Space Infrastructure Foundation

Peter Shames
Systems Architect - Member of Technical Staff
peters at spacestandards.org
+1.310.955.0675

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