Re: LYNX-DEV nit about agent string

[Foteos Macrides]

Foteos Macrides <address@hidden> wrote:
>[...]
>       The -08 HTTP/1.1 draft waters down the definition of the User-Agent
>string, i.e., doesn't say explicitly that the field preceding the first
>slash identifies the software, but still has the earlier examples, for
>which this is the case.

        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.

        The LYNX_NAME definition was added by Lou before formal release
of v2.3, with the explicit intention that vendors, in the full sense of
that word, be able to create product tokens for Lynx binaries which they
compile, distribute, and support directly (they are still, of course,
required to provide the source code if asked for it, and generally would
want to, so that it might be included in the next release and thus save
them the time and expense of re-doing their mods, and they do not give
up copyright to code they generated for inclusion in Lynx, i.e, can still
use it in other products without need to provide the sources for those
on request).

                                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.
;