ISSUE-28 (http-mime-override): Content type rules in HTML 5 overlaps with the HTTP specification? [HTML Principles/Requirements]

ISSUE-28 (http-mime-override): Content type rules in HTML 5 overlaps with the HTTP specification? [HTML Principles/Requirements]

http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/

Raised by: Dan Connolly
On product: HTML Principles/Requirements

The HTTP specification, in section 14.17 Content-Type, says The Content-Type entity-header field indicates the media type of the entity-body sent to the recipient.
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.17

The HTML 5 specification specifies an algorithm for determining content types based on widely deployed practices and software.
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/#content-type-sniffing

To the extent these specifications overlap, the IETF HTTP Working Group has a right of review.


Some history:

April:
Re: Proposed Design Principles updated ("don't break the web" vs respecting MIME types)
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Apr/0199.html

August:
review of content type rules by IETF/HTTP community
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Aug/0677.html

November:
suggestions for default character encoding section
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Nov/0068.html