I am afraid this is not that clear. 

From what I have been told by someone knowledgeable, the IETF is not per se incorporated, and the MoU was signed by the President of ICANN (a legal entity) and the Chairs of the IETF and the Internet Architecture Board (neither of which is a legal entity). It was not through ISOC in that case, although ISOC does provide the IETF a lot of support and contracting capacity in other areas. 

In any case, my question is a more general one. Is incorporation required to "contract"?

If this is really required, how did the W3C manage to organize itself during many years, simply by having a series of "host agreements" with three universities?

I am a bit stubborn, but I am afraid we are not answering this in full detail. 

B.





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On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 5:16 PM, Milton L Mueller <mueller@syr.edu> wrote:

Bertrand,

I think your question has already been answered

 

1)      Is incorporation required to "contract"? Given that the IETF seems to have an MoU with ICANN (among other arrangements with other "entities"), I would suppose that the answer is no. Can someone clarify this important point?

 

MM: Yes, it is. IETF contracts via ISOC.