RFC 1529

RFC 1529 🎀 Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT Subdomain: Remote Printing -- Administrative Policies

okay bestie, first the paperwork 📋 this is RFC 1529, titled Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT Subdomain: Remote Printing -- Administrative Policies. It's part of the Network Working Group series and was published in October 1993 🌸. The authors are C. Malamud (Internet Multicasting Service) and M. Rose (Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.) 💜. It's Informational in category, and it obsoletes 1486 (that's RFC 1486, which this one replaces) 🔁.

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Status of this Memo 📜

so the memo is giving info to the Internet community 🦋 it does not specify an Internet standard, so don't go treating it like one. Distribution is unlimited, which means you can share it anywhere ✨

Introduction 🌸

okay so this doc is all about the admin rules for running remote printer facilities inside the tpc.int subdomain 💅 it talks about different approaches to resource recovery for remote printer server sites, and it also gets into auditing, security, and denial of access. the technical procedures live in [1], and the general principles for tpc.int are in [2] 📚. if you email tpc-faq@town.hall.org, an overview of the remote printing facility gets sent right back to you 💌

Overview of Remote Printing in the TPC.INT Subdomain 🖨️

the remote printing facility lets a user image documents on a remote printer, and a "remote printer" here is a G3-compatible facsimile device hooked up to the public telephone network 📠 the user sends an email to an address that includes the phone number of the target G3-compatible facsimile device. then, using the Domain Name System, the Internet message-handling infrastructure routes the message to a remote printer server 🗺️ that server gives access to devices within a specified range of the telephone system numbering plan. the message gets imaged on the target remote printer, and an acknowledgement gets sent back to whoever started it 🫶

this whole thing is about outreach, bringing the e-mail and G3-compatible facsimile communities together into one communications environment 🌈 easy access for remote printing recipients means enterprise-wide access gets a glow-up, no matter what kind of institution it is (e.g., commercial, educational, or government) or how big it is (e.g., global, regional, or local). it's basically a bridge 🌉 letting people who use e-mail reach the folks in an organization who only use G3-compatible facsimile and not e-mail. bridge energy, honestly 💖

Models of Operation for Remote Printing Servers 💼

so remote printer servers in the tpc.int subdomain use up resources that usually don't get recovered from the initiator or the recipient 💸 and since there isn't widespread authentication across the Internet and connected message handling domains, you can't identify the initiator with certainty 🕵️ the request didn't come from the recipient, so it's inappropriate for a remote printer gateway to accept a request and then try to charge the receiver of the message before imaging the document on the remote printer 🙅‍♀️ rude!!

there are several models of resource recovery for remote printer operation that are possible in the tpc.int subdomain:

• Community Library Model
• Neighborhood Grocery Model
• Local Newspaper Model

Community Library Model 📚

in this one, an organization registers a remote printer gateway that's willing to place calls to all devices located within the organization's telephone system. other operators MAY determine that the costs of servicing the immediate vicinity (or even a larger area) are minimal, and then they register to serve a portion of the telephone address space as a community service 🫶

the Community Library model can apply to a neighborhood, or to an organization like a government R&D Center, a university, or a corporation 🏛️ the library model does not recover costs from the particpants, but runs the remote printer as a community service. pure generosity energy ✨

Neighborhood Grocery Model 🛒

here a commercial organization contracts with specific end users and offers to register their individual fax numbers in the namespace 📇 this service bureau model could be run with or without cost recovery from the owner of the remote printer device 💅

Local Newspaper Model 🗞️

this model recovers the resources needed to run the remote printer service from a third party that isn't directly connected with the message exchange 🤝 when a document is successfully imaged on a remote printer, two things happen. first, a cover sheet is constructed and prepended to the document imaged on the remote printer. second, a notification is sent back to the initiator. an Internet site running a remote printer server registered in the tpc.int subdomain is permitted to acknowledge a sponsor in both cases 🎀

specifically, up to one-third of the area of the cover sheet MAY be used for acknowledgement of the sponsor, and up to 250 bytes of ASCII text acknowledging the sponsor MAY be appended to the notification returned to the initiator 📝 any sponsor acknowledgement is subject to applicable regulations governing the content and form of such acknowledgements, so keep it legit 💼

the words "paid advertisement" SHOULD be prominently displayed in the area containing the message if money has changed hands for the transaction. if an organization uses the local newspaper model simply to transmit community service messages, then the words "paid advertisement" need not be displayed 💸

Auditing and Security 🔐

a remote printer server SHOULD maintain a log for auditing and security 📒 this log MAY contain at most the following information:

1. the date the message was received;
2. the "From" and "Message-ID" fields;
3. the size of the body;
4. the identity (telephone number) of the printer;
5. any telephony-related information, such as call duration;
6. any G3-related information, such recipient ID.

this info is the most that can be kept, and it MAY be further limited by legal authority with jurisdiction at the site ⚖️

the purpose of the log is to maintain accountability and security 🛡️ it's considered a violation of the privacy of both the initiator and the recipient of the remote printer services to divulge these logs, unless required by legal authority with jurisdiction at the site. and it's especially a violation of privacy to divulge, directly or indirectly, this kind of information for compiling lists for marketing purposes 🚫📣 absolutely not.

it IS permissible, though, to furnish interested parties with summary reports showing the number of calls, average length, and other summary info, as long as that summary info couldn't be used to identify individual initiators or recipients or their calling patterns 📊 for example, a remote printer gateway might give an interested party a report of the number of calls per day and hours logged to a specific local area exchange ☎️

remote printer servers operate in a public service capacity and MUST strictly respect the privacy of the contents of messages 🤐 unless required by technical or legal considerations, the content of messages SHALL NOT be monitored or disclosed. privacy is the whole vibe 🫧

Denial of Access 🚪

Internet sites registered in the tpc.int subdomain MAY deny access based on the source but not the destination of the message 🙅 if an Internet site feels it's inappropriate to provide access to a particular destination, then it SHOULD re-register itself accordingly 🔄

denial of access based on source SHOULD be made only if required by legal authority with jurisdiction at the site, or because of abuse. in all cases, denial of access SHOULD result in a notification returned to the initiator that indicates the policy that was violated 📣 however, if repeated attempts keep coming from the source, repeated notifications are not necessary 😮‍💨 denial of access SHOULD be distinguished from the inability to provide access. for example, improperly formatted messages will prevent access, but that's a formatting problem, not a denial 🧾

denial of access can happen because of problems in a single message or set of messages, or because of consistent patterns of abuse 🚨 examples of denial on a single message might include an attempt to transmit an extremely long document, such as a 100-page memo. a document like that might violate local policies that limit the number of pages or transmission time 📄

a more serious problem is long-term abuse of facilities 😤 a remote printer server might choose to impose a usage limit on a daily or monthly basis. such limits SHOULD be chosen to balance the desire to encourage legitimate users with the need to prevent consistent abuse ⚖️

at present, it's the responsibility of each Internet site running a remote printer server to define a local policy for denial of access 🧠 this policy SHOULD be based on objective criteria, and those criteria SHOULD be registered with the tpc.int subdomain secretariat at the e-mail address tpc-admin@town.hall.org 💌

Security Considerations 💀

okay bestie, the memo says it straight up: "Security issues are not discussed in this memo." 😬 so don't assume this doc has your security covered, because it doesn't 🔒

References 📖

• [1] Malamud, C., and M. Rose, "Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT Subdomain: Remote Printing -- Technical Procedures", RFC 1528, Dover Beach Consulting, Inc., Internet Multicasting Service, October 1993.
• [2] Malamud, C., and M. Rose, "Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT Subdomain: General Principles and Policy", RFC 1530, Internet Multicasting Service, Dover Beach Consulting, Inc., October 1993.

Authors' Addresses 📮

Carl Malamud
Internet Multicasting Service
Suite 1155, The National Press Building
Washington, DC 20045
US

Phone: +1 202 628 2044
Fax:   +1 202 628 2042
Email: carl@malamud.com


Marshall T. Rose
Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.
420 Whisman Court
Mountain View, CA  94043-2186
US

Phone: +1 415 968 1052
Fax:   +1 415 968 2510
Email: mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us

that's the whole RFC, bestie 🌈✨ admin policy with a side of main character energy 👑