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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!ESTEFFERUD@Usc-Ecl.ARPA
From: ESTEFFERUD@Usc-Ecl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.mail.msggroup
Subject: Re: redistribution lists
Message-ID: <594@hou3c.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-May-84 01:01:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou3c.594
Posted: Fri May 25 01:01:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 08:35:34 EDT
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Lines: 33
To: BILLW@Sri-Kl.ARPA
Cc: msggroup@Brl-Aos.ARPA
In-Reply-To: <[SRI-KL]24-May-84 13:24:29.BILLW>

Hi Bill --- You asked "What exactly does the BRL Mailer do?"

Well, in a logical sense, it is not the Mailer at BRL that does it.
It is a Distributor which is invoked when a mail item arrives for
Distribution to a list that is stored at BRL by a list maintainer.

The Distributor, acting as though it were a User Agent, with authority
to modify the message in any way it sees fit, simply causes the
Distributed copies to be given a specified Return-Path: field content.

In the case of MsgGroup, this is:

	Return-path: <msggroup-request@brl-mis>

It might be argued that this Distributor is in fact implemented as
though it were a module of the Mailer, but logically speaking, it must
be operating outside the authority of the mailer, else it should not
be messing with the return path in this way.

So, it is logical, as I see things, to consider it to be acting with
the rights and privileges of User Agent, which acts on behalf of
subscribers, to remail items received from contributors, who are
assumed to understand that they are contributing to a quasi publishing
operation which will broadcast their contribution to a list, and
hopefully will buffer the contributors from failed mail notices
resulting from failures beyond the Distribution point.

It will be nice when all public distribution lists in the Internet
operate in this manner.  I understand that BRL uses this arrangement
for all lists that the maintainer wishes to operate this way.  It is a
matter of individual maintainer's prerogatives to do so.

Enough?  Stef