[ietf-dkim] ABNF: Sender = Originator / Operator

[Dave Crocker]

Bill.Oxley at cox.com wrote:
> Delineate original responsibility of who wrote the message (Author) from
> a more responsible party who allowed the author to access the outside
> world (Originator) vs a diminished responsibility of who passes the
> message along, (Operator)

"more responsible".  I don't understand.

I do understand the interest in stopping the abuse at its source network. But 
that makes the entity of interest a particular Operator, rather than somehow 
being fundamentally different that all other Operators.

That is (using the original terminology I proposed) the Originator's Operator 
carries some extra leverage, presuming posting authentication.

However, any Operator in the sequence could enforce limitations.

d/

ps. To the extent that folks decide we do need a special term for the first 
Operator, the word Originator will be confusing, given a) it's history, and b) 
it's likely intuitive meaning to folks.  If you ask a random person who the 
Originator of a message is, I suspect they will refer to the author.

-- 

Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
<http://bbiw.net>