[At-Large] News gTLDs and e-mail

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

Patrick,

  Which IETF list?

Patrick Vande Walle wrote:

> There is an interesting discussion currently on the IETF list about the consequences of the approval of the new gTLD process by ICANN.
> One possible issue may be with vanity gTLDs like apple, ebay etc. In this context, an email address may just be user at tld
>
> This may be confusing to email clients and MTAs which try to be "smart". Currently , the current standard is defined in RFC 2821 as such:
>
> 2.3.5 Domain
>    A domain (or domain name) consists of one or more dot-separated components.
>   [...]
>   The domain name, as described in this document and in [22], is the entire, fully-qualified name (often referred to as an "FQDN").  A
>   domain name that is not in FQDN form is no more than a local alias. Local aliases MUST NOT appear in any SMTP transaction.
>
> Hence, if either the mail client or the MTA expect to see a dot in the domain name and there is none, its behaviour may be unpredictable.
>
> The new gTLD context is addressed in the draft RFC2821bis, which states:
>
> 2.3.5.  Domain Names
>    A domain name (or often just a "domain") consists of one or more components, separated by dots *if more than one appears*.   (emphasis added)
>
> Unfortunately, the current implementations are based on the original RFC2821, not the revised draft. There may be a lot of software out there that would treat user at tld as a local e-mail address (ie not FQDN).
>
> I am not aware of any study by SSAC on that matter (pointers appreciated). Where I think it matters for the user community is that we actually expect our e-mails to complaints at ebay or support at apple to be delivered. I see here an opportunity for the ALAC to ask ICANN for a report on this.
>
> Patrick
>
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>
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