Unauthenticated executable content of any kind has no place in email. There
is no cause to send unsolicited and unauthenticated Java, Active-X or
Javascript. The <IMG> tag referencing an external object is causing a
programmed action I think it should be blocked by default as well.
HTML worked and works just fine without external references or executable
content.
The IETF could try to issue an edict to stop HTML email but the market
simply won't listen. Issuing an RFC does not change the world.
Again, I'm not trying to STOP HTML-burdened E-mail, but I think it should NOT
be the DEFAULT, especially not in cases where the features thus enabled are not
even used in the message in question.
As for the "market listening", if we encourage recipients to establish
filtering
based on aspects of HTML, such that some notable percentage of HTML-burdened
mail bounces or at least does not get delivered in the absence of specific
permission authority... then I think that AOL users (for example) in similarly
notable numbers calling their AOL Customer Support clamboring for how to send
plain ASCII text messages would get AOL's attention, and probably result in
them
realizing what a bad idea it is to send purely gratuitous HTML by default.
AOL users don't like spam any more than the rest of us, (maybe even less!) and
I
think you'd get a lot of them jump onboard such a plan.
Gordon Peterson http://personal.terabites.com/
1977-2002 Twenty-fifth anniversary year of Local Area Networking!
Support the Anti-SPAM Amendment! Join at http://www.cauce.org/
12/19/98: Partisan Republicans scornfully ignore the voters they "represent".
12/09/00: the date the Republican Party took down democracy in America.
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg