Re: LYNX-DEV nit about agent string

[Foteos Macrides]

address@hidden (Cryptic Tom Z.) wrote:
>On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Foteos Macrides wrote:
>
>> Foteos Macrides <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 
>>      I take that back.  The -08 draft has "Section 3.8 Product Tokens"
>> which still specifies what precedes the first slash in the User-Agent
>> field.  "Mozilla" is the product token for Netscape browsers -- not a
>> trademark, nor a copyright notice, but a *product token* according to the
>> HTTP protocol.  If you arrange for software to send that as the string
>> preceding the first slash, according to the HTTP protocol, you still are
>> misrepresenting the software as a Netscape browser, and real lawyers will
>> need to test, someday, whether that amounts to a copyright violation.
>
>I think it would simply mean that the "product" indicates it can handle
>(whatever that implies) extensions specifically for browser type
>indicated.  If I say I am MSIE, I can expect to get ActiveX applets.

        But there is no product token for MSIE, is there?  MSIE uses
Netscape's Mozilla product token.


>Or, maybe we need some lawyers to write nasty letters to web sites that
>contain words like "anti-trust" and "americans-with-disabilities-act" when
>they refuse to accept Lynx as a valid browser by checking agent strings
>instead of determining actual capabilities (e.g. you can disable weak SSL
>protocols at the server end, so you would not be able to connect to such a
>site with a crypto-crippled browser).

        It would be better to start by writing them with the assumption
that they don't yet understand that they are making incorrect assumptions.
It they come back with rationalizations, homologous to yours about product
tokens, the situation in those particular cases probably is hopeless.  The
issue is whether to assume the situation is hopeless from the outset, and
emulate MSIE's product token abuse, for all sites.  I hope most Lynx users
choose not to do that.

                                Fote

=========================================================================
 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
=========================================================================
;
; To UNSUBSCRIBE:  Send a mail message to address@hidden
;                  with "unsubscribe lynx-dev" (without the
;                  quotation marks) on a line by itself.
;