> The IETF specs are not like laws where they can really be enforced. 

I think most of us understand this already.  However, the IETF specs
do establish widely-held assumptions for what is needed to allow
products to interoperate.  Vendors who ship products that violate those
specs are risking that their products will not harm interoperability.
Customers can hold those vendors liable for violating the specifications,
especially if they don't bother to document the violations and/or problems 
that result.  Admittedly this doesn't happen as often as it should.

Within IETF, the best we can do is to produce clear guidelines for what
is expected.  The harm that will result if the expectations are violated 
is not always possible to document in advance.  Just look at the level
of denial that's still occuring about the harm that NATs cause.

Keith
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