RFC 2978 (rfc2978) - Page 1 of 11

IANA Charset Registration Procedures

Network Working Group                                         N. Freed
Request for Comments: 2978                                    Innosoft
BCP: 19                                                      J. Postel
Obsoletes: 2278                                                    ISI
Category: Best Current Practice                           October 2000


                  IANA Charset Registration Procedures

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
   Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) (RFC-2045, RFC-2046,
   RFC-2047, RFC-2184) and various other Internet protocols are capable
   of using many different charsets.  This in turn means that the
   ability to label different charsets is essential.

   Note: The charset registration procedure exists solely to associate a
   specific name or names with a given charset and to give an indication
   of whether or not a given charset can be used in MIME text objects.
   In particular, the general applicability and appropriateness of a
   given registered charset to a particular application is a protocol
   issue, not a registration issue, and is not dealt with by this
   registration procedure.

1.  Definitions and Notation

   The following sections define terms used in this document.

1.1.  Requirements Notation

   This document occasionally uses terms that appear in capital letters.
   When the terms "MUST", "SHOULD", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD NOT", and "MAY"
   appear capitalized, they are being used to indicate particular
   requirements of this specification.  A discussion of the meanings of
   these terms appears in [RFC-2119].






Freed & Postel           Best Current Practice