I am not a mail expert, nor can I recite RFC's 821, 822 and 1123 from memory
forward and backward.  But I want to offer some thoughts outside the strict
interpretation of the RFC's and whether or not AOL is in violation of them.

- Regardless of the intended purpose of this change, as an AOL user I am
  aghast that it would be implemented with no warning whatsoever that some
  mail could be lost as a result.  Surely, if the true purpose of it being
  done was to cut down on spam, this would've been a cause for announcement
  of this wonderful new "feature" of the service.

- Further, as an AOL user, I am highly offended by the attitude of "Oh, well,
  hate it." in response to the fact that legitimate mail is not getting
  delivered to what may not be a majority of AOL users, but at least a
  significant number.  Frankly, if I were relying on AOL for anything other
  than its content, my cancellation notice would be in the mail.  And you
  can bet that anyone who asks here will be told to NOT use this service for
  e-mail.  All the better I suppose, to cut down on that crushing mail load.

- It has been stated that the positive response to this change has been
  overwhelmingly larger than the negative.  Could the fact that many people
  don't KNOW yet they are losing mail have anything to do with that?  Unless
  someone contacts them to say that mail isn't getting through, or they
  start missing mail from a distribution list or somesuch, many users probably
  aren't even aware this is happening.  I know all the people I've contacted
  so far are pretty surprised.

- Regardless of the intended purpose of this change, as a campus network
  administrator, I am highly agitated that AOL chose to do this with no
  warning to the Internet community at large (at least that I saw), when
  it should've been incredibly obvious that this would have a wide impact.

- Further, as a network and server administrator, and campus network support
  person, I am downright pissed off at having this crisis thrown upon me.
  But then, it's no skin off AOL's back that we suddenly have a barrage of
  complaints from people who have been sending mail just fine and now all
  of a sudden cannot.  And that we are expected to madly rush about trying
  to reroute things or reconfigure/upgrade software just because this one
  ISP decides to unilaterally redefine accepted Internet practise.

- While I cannot debate the finer points of whether this is legal or not
  according to the RFC's, I am pretty darn sure that this has nothing to do
  with RFC 822, so it should not be quoted in the error message used to
  bounce mail.  It gives the appearance that WE are suddenly in violation of
  standards, WHICH WE ARE NOT.  If AOL is going to choose to refuse mail
  based on an operational reason that makes sense to it, then it should
  say so -- not try to cloak it as if it is doing so based on accepted
  standards.

- I think the whole concept of using AOL's user base as an excuse and a
  weapon to eliminate the world of "evil" network standards, and to force
  upon everyone draft network specifications, sets a very bad precedent and
  is in violation of the spirit, if not the law, of the Internet.