>>> Please just make finger{,d} pass safe subset of 8bit [...]
>> Part of the trouble is, fingerd has no idea what "safe subset of
>> 8bit" is for the client.
> I really do not quite get it.  Could please anybody explain to me,
> why we should treat finger specially

We shouldn't.

> if I, for instance, can put into my `/etc/ftpwelcome', `/etc/issue'
> etc anything I want and, bearing in mind the superior popularity of
> ftp and telnet clients unlike finger, it will definitely break a lot
> of clients

If our telnetd and ftpd will send non-ASCII over connections specified
to be ASCII, they are broken and need fixing.

For FTP, see RFC 2640.

For telnet, see RFC 2066.

> or, at least, your xterm (until you reset it)?

I don't use xterm. :-)

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