To: djb@koobera.math.uic.edu (D. J. Bernstein)
Cc: drums@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: MX loop example 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "04 Aug 1996 19:07:35 GMT."
             <19960804190735.8959.qmail@koobera.math.uic.edu> 
Date: Mon, 05 Aug 1996 05:14:54 +1000
Message-Id: <7992.839186094@munnari.OZ.AU>
From: Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au>

    Date:        4 Aug 1996 19:07:35 -0000
    From:        djb@koobera.math.uic.edu (D. J. Bernstein)
    Message-ID:  <19960804190735.8959.qmail@koobera.math.uic.edu>

    That has no relevance to this discussion. It is a red herring.

Not true.

    As I've already explained, despite your repeated attempts to suggest the
    opposite, you are NOT REQUIRED to accept messages for ``random others.''
    If you aren't willing to take the responsibility for delivering a
    message, all you have to do is reject it.

Rejecting mail incurs costs, not quite as much as accepting it
and then processing it, but that is irrelevant.   No-one can
require that anyone else incur those costs.   Attempt it and I
will take whatever defensive measures I feel necessary, including
accepting then discarding mail, in order to try and prevent it
occurring again.

If you pretend that either I, or anyone else, will not act like
this, and write the specs in a way that pretends to people that
this cannot happen, you are lying to them.

kre