[media-types] Re: Proposed media type registration for appli cation/rsl+xml

The media registration form below looks complete and accurate. Good job.

      Tony

From: Eckart Walther <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026 at 11:55 AM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: [media-types] Proposed media type registration for application/rsl+xml

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Hello,

I am writing to request review of a proposed media type registration for application/rsl+xml, for the Really Simple Licensing (RSL)<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://rslstandard.org/rsl__;!!BhdT!ix-T81O2Z2dmGzohD1Wfxek8YY2tuXXGBIsj2uOAU_uWQIJQTuJni76SKhaQKf4JR0IBdVfglaEUT68$> specification.

RSL is an open, industry-defined XML-based format for expressing machine-readable licensing terms, discovery mechanisms, and related authorization information for digital assets on the web. More than 1500 media organizations have announced support for RSL, including Reddit, Yahoo, Cloudflare, and Creative Commons.

Depending on whether the RSL Technical Steering Committee qualifies for permanent standards-tree registration, we would also welcome IANA guidance on whether this should instead be handled as a provisional standards-tree registration.

Proposed registration text:

Type name: application
Subtype name: rsl+xml
Required parameters: none
Optional parameters: none
Encoding considerations: binary

Security considerations:

RSL documents are XML documents and inherit the security considerations of XML and XML media types. RSL itself does not define executable content, however, RSL documents may contain URIs referring to license servers, payment endpoints or other related resources. Because RSL documents can influence automated access-control, licensing, payment, and authorization decisions, integrity and authenticity are important, and implementations should retrieve RSL documents over HTTPS.

Interoperability considerations:

RSL is an XML vocabulary with a fixed namespace, https://rslstandard.org/rsl<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://rslstandard.org/rsl__;!!BhdT!ix-T81O2Z2dmGzohD1Wfxek8YY2tuXXGBIsj2uOAU_uWQIJQTuJni76SKhaQKf4JR0IBdVfglaEUT68$>. Generic XML tools can parse the format, but correct interpretation requires understanding the RSL elements, attributes, and processing rules defined by the RSL specification.

Published specification:

Really Simple Licensing (RSL) 1.0 Specification
https://rslstandard.org/rsl<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://rslstandard.org/rsl__;!!BhdT!ix-T81O2Z2dmGzohD1Wfxek8YY2tuXXGBIsj2uOAU_uWQIJQTuJni76SKhaQKf4JR0IBdVfglaEUT68$>

Applications that use this media type:

Web publishers, hosting platforms, crawlers, AI agents, license servers, and related software that exchange or interpret machine-readable licensing terms for digital assets.

Fragment identifier:

The fragment identifier syntax and semantics for application/rsl+xml are the same as for application/xml, and this registration does not define additional fragment identifier semantics.

Restrictions on usage: none

Provisional registration: yes, if IANA determines that provisional standards-tree registration is the appropriate path at this stage

Additional information:

Magic number(s): none
File extension(s): .rsl, .xml
Macintosh file type code(s): none

Contact:

Eckart Walther
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

Intended usage:

COMMON

Author:

RSL Technical Steering Committee: G. Boyer (RSL Collective); C. Chen (Condé Nast); J. Fortuna (Ziff Davis); RV Guha (Schema.org); S. Koenig (Yahoo); J. Le Page (Automattic); A. Odewahn (O’Reilly Media); E. Walther (RSL Collective); S. Wistow (Fastly)

Change controller:

RSL Technical Steering Committee

Comments:

Preferred file extension: .rsl. XML-compatible files may also use .xml.

Thank you for your time and review.

Best regards,

Eckart Walther
Editor, RSL Technical Steering Committee
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

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