> This leaves the question open: when using email to send a message, are the > message's headers are part of the message, or are they metadata (i.e. an
two many words "are" > Therefore, the finding is that a "public message" consists solely of its > body, and the metadata headers are associated with the public message, but > not "part of" the message. Surely this isn't universal? E.g. if I went out of my way to spread a message over a subject and body, and made it really clear the message is supposed to be both together, wouldn't the subject then be part of the message? In your envelope analogy: if an eccentric person scribbled the first part of a message on the envelope and the second part on paper inside the envelope, I think that would be a message. (Stretching the definition further: if I hid a message in the arrangement of books on a shelf (maybe first letters of the titles), it would still be a "message", just a hidden one.) I could believe that what you're describing is the normal state of affairs, to be assumed if there isn't compelling evidence to the contrary. Maybe in this case there isn't so the default should be assumed. -- Falsifian