usefor-article-03 February 2000

6.12.  Approved

   The Approved header indicates the mailing addresses (and possibly the
   full names) of the persons or entities approving the article for
   posting.

      Approved-content    = From-content  ; see 5.2

   Each mailbox contained in the Approved-content MUST be that of the
   person or entity in question, and one of those mailboxes MUST be that
   of the actual injector of the article.
[This is the start of an attempt to strengthen this header. It should be
a TOSSable offence to put a dummy or invalid address in here. Later,
when we have some form of authentication, I would hope to be able to say
more.]

   An Approved header is required in all postings to moderated
   newsgroups. If this header is not present in such postings, then
   relaying and serving agents MUST reject the article. Please see
   section 8.2.2 for how injecting agents should treat postings to
   moderated groups that do not contain this header.

   An Approved header is also required in certain control messages, to
   reduce the risk of accidental posting of same; see the relevant parts
   of section 7.

--- ../s-o-1036/Approved.out          June 1994
+++ ../usefor-article-03/Approved.out          February 2000
@@ -1,51 +1,26 @@
-6.10. Approved
+6.12.  Approved
 
-The Approved header content indicates the mailing  addresses
-(and  possibly  the  full  names) of the persons or entities
-approving the article for posting:
-
-     Approved-content = From-content *( "," [ space ] From-content )
+   The Approved header indicates the mailing addresses (and possibly the
+   full names) of the persons or entities approving the article for
+   posting.
+
+      Approved-content    = From-content  ; see 5.2
+
+   Each mailbox contained in the Approved-content MUST be that of the
+   person or entity in question, and one of those mailboxes MUST be that
+   of the actual injector of the article.
+[This is the start of an attempt to strengthen this header. It should be
+a TOSSable offence to put a dummy or invalid address in here. Later,
+when we have some form of authentication, I would hope to be able to say
+more.]
 
 An Approved header is required in all postings to  moderated
-newsgroups;  the presence or absence of this header allows a
-posting agent to distinguish between articles posted by  the
-moderator  (which are normal articles to be posted normally)
-and attempted  contributions  by  others  (which  should  be
-mailed  to  the moderator for approval).  An Approved header
-is also required in certain control messages, to reduce  the
-probability  of accidental posting of same; see the relevant
-parts of section 7.
-
-INTERNET DRAFT to be        NEWS                   sec. 6.10
-
-
-     NOTE: There is, at present, no way to authenticate
-     Approved   headers  to  ensure  that  the  claimed
-     approval really was bestowed.   Nor  is  there  an
-     established  mechanism for even maintaining a list
-     of legitimate approvers (such a list would quickly
-     become  out  of date if it had to be maintained by
-     hand).  Such  mechanisms,  presumably  relying  on
-     cryptographic  authentication,  would  be a worth-
-     while extension to this  Draft,  and  experimental
-     work  in this area is encouraged.  (The problem is
-     harder than it sounds because news is used on many
-     systems  which do not have real-time access to key
-     servers.)
-
-     NOTE: Relayer implementors, please note  well:  it
-     is the POSTING AGENT that is authorized to distin-
-     guish between  moderator  postings  and  attempted
-     contributions,  and to mail the latter to the mod-
-     erator.  As discussed  in  section  9.1,  relayers
-     MUST  not,  repeat  MUST  not,  send such mail; on
-     receipt of an unApproved article  in  a  moderated
-     newsgroup,  they  should  discard the article, NOT
-     transform it into a mail message  (except  perhaps
-     to a local administrator).
-
-     NOTE:  RFC  1036  restricted  Approved to a single
-     From-content.  However, multiple moderation is  no
-     longer  rare, and multi-moderator Approved headers
-     are already in use.
+   newsgroups. If this header is not present in such postings, then
+   relaying and serving agents MUST reject the article. Please see
+   section 8.2.2 for how injecting agents should treat postings to
+   moderated groups that do not contain this header.
+
+   An Approved header is also required in certain control messages, to
+   reduce the risk of accidental posting of same; see the relevant parts
+   of section 7.