Content Duration MIME Header Definition

Network Working Group                                       G. Vaudreuil
Request for Comments: 3803                           Lucent Technologies
Obsoletes: 2424                                               G. Parsons
Category: Standards Track                                Nortel Networks
                                                               June 2004


                Content Duration MIME Header Definition

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).

Abstract

   This document describes the MIME header Content-Duration that is
   intended for use with any time varying media content (typically
   audio/* or video/*).

1.  Introduction

   This document describes the MIME header Content-Duration that is
   intended for use with any time varying media content (typically
   audio/* or video/*).  The length of time is represented in seconds
   without any units indication.  This document obsoletes RFC 2424.

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [REQ].

2.  Content-Duration Header Field

   Time varying media contents, for example, a spoken voice message or a
   video clip, have an inherent time duration.  Many audio and video
   encodings may include their duration as header information or may
   allow accurate calculation based on the byte length of the data.
   However, it may be useful to present the time duration of the content
   in a MIME header to allow its simple determination without dealing
   with the actual content.

2.1.  Syntax

   The Content-Duration field's value is a single number specifying the
   time duration in seconds of the content.  Formally:

   duration := "Content-Duration" ":" 1*10DIGIT

   Note that practically (though highly unlikely in MIME media), the
   upper bound on the numerical value of the time duration is (2^^31 -1)
   or 2147483647.

2.2.  Semantics

   This field represents the time duration of the associated time
   varying media content.  The time duration is noted in seconds with no
   units tag. The time value should be exact, however the exact value of
   the time duration cannot be known without opening the content and
   playing it.  If an exact value must be known, then the latter method
   should be used. This mechanism simply allows placing a sender
   determined time duration value in the header for easy access.

   Though there are several ways to present this duration to the
   recipient (e.g., with the inbox headers, when audio attachment
   opened), the actual use of this field on reception is a local
   implementation issue.

2.3.  Example

   In this example the content duration represents 33 seconds:

         Content-Duration: 33

3.  VPIM Usage

   The Content-Duration header field for the audio/32KADPCM sub-type is
   a useful component of the VPIM specification [VPIM2].  All VPIM
   Messages MUST contain this sub-type to carry the audio of a voice
   message.  It may be useful in some instances (e.g., viewing on a
   simple MIME or non-MIME desktop) to have the time duration of the
   voice message available without having to open the audio content.

4.  Security Considerations

   This definition introduces the option of explicitly identifying the
   time duration of an audio/* or video/* content outside of the binary
   data that forms the content.  In some environments (though likely not
   the majority), the identification of the actual time duration in a
   header field may be a security issue and as a result should not be
   noted. Reliance on the time indicated in this header field cannot be
   trusted for the purposes of determining the exact size of the data.
   The exact length of the data must be determined by examining the data
   itself.

5.  References

5.1.  Normative References

   [MIME2]   Gellens, R., "The Text/Plain Format Parameter", RFC 2646,
             August 1999.

   [VPIM2R2] Vaudreuil, G., and G. Parsons, "Voice Profile for Internet
             Mail - version 2 (VPIMv2)", RFC 3801, June 2004.

   [REQ]     Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

5.2.  Informative References

   [DUR]     Parsons, G. and G. Vaudreuil, "Content Duration MIME Header
             Definition", RFC 2424, September 1998.

   [VPIM2]   Vaudreuil, G. and G. Parsons, "Voice Profile for Internet
             Mail - version 2", RFC 2421, September 1998.

6.  Changes from RFC 2424

   Only editorial and boilerplate changes from RFC 2424 have been made
   to this document.

7.  Authors' Addresses

   Gregory M. Vaudreuil
   Lucent Technologies
   7291 Williamson Rd
   Dallas, TX  75214
   United States

   EMail: gregv@ieee.org


   Glenn W. Parsons
   Nortel Networks
   P.O. Box 3511, Station C
   Ottawa, ON  K1Y 4H7
   Canada

   Phone: +1-613-763-7582
   Fax:   +1-613-763-2697
   EMail: gparsons@nortelnetworks.com

8.  Full 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.

   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.

Intellectual Property

   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.  Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
   ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.