On Sun, 07 Jul 2002 10:16:15 -0700 Chuq Von Rospach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> That works. JC is thinking instead of neutering it in the list server. Responding more to your para below than the quote above: Yes, as a list owner I'm largely attempting to build and establish something of a safe house. I would like, both at personal responsibility level and as a point of professionalism, to have my users know and trust that what they get from me and my systems is exactly what it pretends to be, no more, no less, and with no hidden baggage or less than shiny clean safe riders. Idealistic? Damned right, especially in these days of rampant mail forgery. But, its important to me and its something I'm not particularly willing to back down on. I like to consider that I run lists well, that I do so in a professional and competent manner, and that in doing so I build and operate something that is worthy of trust even outside of its topic-content. And that all means attempting to be clever on user's behalf at the server level. > I think at some point, however, you have to stop babysitting the user. > Protecting them from dangerous code coming through the server is one > thing. Privacy issues ought to be left to the user to resolve, not > the server. Unfortunately the line is not so clear. The innocuous HTML mail of today with external links can be the pernicious mail of tomorrow by simply changing the objects those links point at. This is especially true if you pass Javascript. <shrug> Unfortunately I expect you're right however, if only on the basis of triage. We all know where it will end up. Some will (perhaps wisely) ostrich and strip HTML et al far into the future, a vast middle ground will attempt to sanitise mail and will thus engage in an arms race with the Bad Guys as they both counter-counter-adapt to each other's tricks, and the rest will just pass everything -- and the users, as always, will adapt. -- J C Lawrence ---------(*) Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas. [EMAIL PROTECTED] He lived as a devil, eh? http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/ Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.
