Subject: [EAI] ISSUE utf8 meaage/global

From: "Charles Lindsey" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:20:53 +0100

4.2.  Changes on MIME headers

    This specification updates section 6.4 of RFC 2045.  RFC 2045
    prohibits applying a content-transfer-encoding to all subtypes of
    message/.  This specification relaxes the rule, allowing newly
    defined MIME types to permit content-transfer-encoding. (see
    Section 4.6).

I reiterate my objection to this breach of the "EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN" rule  
in RFC 2045, unless it can be established that a significant part of the  
installed base of MTAs will cope with it when downgrading to Non-8BITMIME  
(it is already established that a significant part of that base will _not_  
cope with it).

It is claimed in 4.6 that existing MTAs will cope with this unknown MIME  
type by treating it as application/octet stream (although it is unclear  
whether that default pvovision was ever intended to apply to other than  
MUAs, and whether MUAs handle Q-P and Base64 in message types is  
irrelevant to my argument). The issue is what the current installed base  
of MTAs actually _does_ (rightly or wrongly).

Note that we are now proposing to apply this relaxation to four new  
message types:
    message/global
    message/global-delivery-status
    message/global-headers
    message/global-disposition-notification
of which problems with the third could be avoided by using  
text/global-headers instead.

I understand that the consensus is against me on this issue, and I am  
therefore not asking that it be reopened at this stage. However, I repeat  
what I have already stated before, that I intend to raise it at IESG Last  
Call.

Note that I have written separate EDITORIAL comments on the utf8 and dsn  
drafts.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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