spf-discuss
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Re: Changing the meaning of "mail from" is stillborn

2004-01-20 15:40:55
On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 11:12:13AM -0600, arnold+spf(_at_)Arnold(_dot_)com 
wrote:

The mail from address in the (E)SMTP dialogue, sometimes called the
envelope sender, but better described as the envelope return address,
has a defined meaning:  It is the address to which delivery status
notifications are to be sent (or <> if DSNs should not be sent).

Both RFC821 and RFC2821 talk about "the sender mailbox".
RFC821 talks about "this list" (the reverse-path) "as a
source route to return non-delivery notices to the sender."

So, please define "sender".  I do not find conclusive evidence
for my interpretation yet I also cannot find reason to change
my mind.  I do not think what you write is the truth. (Not that
you're a liar, IMHO you are just wrong).

When an MTA is receiving mail, for a local user thereby accepting
it for delivery, the host is accepting the message.  The responsability
of the original sender ends here.

_After_ that, the message is resent, under control of a user
(which may or may not be the postmaster), to another location.

Question one: Why should the original sender be the one doing
this in stead of the user that wrote the .forward file?

Question two: Why should bounces go to the original sender in
stead of the sender?

The original sender did not write a message to the third mailbox.
The original sender may not even _want_ to communicate, at all, with
the third mailbox's system.
The original sender has no control over the second system nor the
third system and can therefore do nothing about any problems that
may arise.

cheers,
Alex
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