Network Working Group P. Hoffman Internet-Draft VPN Consortium Expires: April 15, 2005 October 15, 2004 Revised Registration Procedures for URL Scheme Names draft-hoffman-scheme-reg-00.txt Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions of section 3 of RFC 3667. By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she become aware will be disclosed, in accordance with RFC 3668. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on April 15, 2005. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). Abstract This document revises the registration procedures given in RFC 2717 based on five years of experience. It simplifies the requirements for getting a scheme listed by IANA by removing the technical review and allowing multiple registrants to share a scheme name. 1. Introduction RFC 2717 [RFC2717] describes the current mechanism for registering Hoffman Expires April 15, 2005 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Revised Registration Procedures October 2004 new URL schemes. There is widespread dissatisfaction in the Internet community with these procedures, which has led to many people simply ignoring them and using unregistered schemes in many widely-deployed applications. This document revises the procedures in RFC 2717 to make registration much simpler and more definitive, at a cost of allowing some schemes to have multiple registrations. The basic structure of the new procedure is: o Scheme names in the registry can have multiple entries for the name. There is no "first come, first served" restriction on a name. o After an RFC that registers a scheme name is published, the RFC is entered into the registry and the name is then closed to additional entries. o There is no technical review of registrations, only a minor secretarial review (and a check whether or not the name's registration is already closed). o Schemes in the current IANA registry are closed to new registrations. 2. Procedure for Registering The registrant should first check the IANA scheme name registry to see whether or not there is already an entry for the name desired and, if so, whether the name's registration is closed. If it is not closed (or there is no entry under the name yet), the registrant may register the name by submitting the template shown here to IANA. Upon receipt of the filled-in template, IANA: 1. Checks the submission for completeness. 2. Checks the current registry for an entry of that name. If such a registry exists, checks that the registry is not closed. If it is closed, IANA rejects the registration request. 3. Checks the URL given in the request, makes sure it is alive, and checks that it generally describes the URL scheme being registered. 4. [[ Possibly more here. ]] 5. Fills in the registry. 2.1 Registration Template [[ Use same template as RFC 2717, but add "URL of document more completely describing the scheme". ]] Hoffman Expires April 15, 2005 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Revised Registration Procedures October 2004 2.2 Registering from RFCs [[ Needs to be filled in. Similar to steps as above, but with the addition of marking the name's registry as "closed" after entering the new entry. ]] 3. IANA Considerations Clearly, this whole document is about IANA considerations. 3.1 Converting the current registry to the new format [[ Stuff here about adding URLs. ]] [[ Adding an indicator for each current name that the name is closed because all current names start off closed. ]] 3.2 Registering new names [[ How to start a new name entry ]] 3.3 Adding additional registrations to existing names [[ Checking that the name is actually open ]] 3.4 Registering names from RFCs [[ Making it the last entry; closing out the name ]] 4. Security Considerations There are no known security issues with the new registration mechanism. 5 Normative References [RFC2717] Petke, R. and I. King, "Registration Procedures for URL Scheme Names", BCP 35, RFC 2717, November 1999. Hoffman Expires April 15, 2005 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Revised Registration Procedures October 2004 Author's Address Paul Hoffman VPN Consortium 127 Segre Place Santa Cruz, CA 95060 US EMail: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org Hoffman Expires April 15, 2005 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Revised Registration Procedures October 2004 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. 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Disclaimer of Validity This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Hoffman Expires April 15, 2005 [Page 5]