REQIF13 — Allow only relative URLs, not absolute URLs

On page 57, there is the following text:
"The location of an external object MUST be specified via the data attribute.
The data attribute MUST either contain:
a) a URL relative to the location of the exchange XML document, or
b) an absolute URL.
Case a) MUST be supported, case b) SHOULD be supported."

However, case b), the absolute URL, has proven to be not relevant and even problematic in practice.

Should the import tool try to “download” the file from the URL and insert the file into the correct requirement in the RM-Tool?
This is potentially problematic if the URL points to a location that is not secure (somewhere on the internet) or if the executing user has no access to the URL (it is likely only the exporting user has access, not the importing user)

Should the import tool insert a URL into the requirement’s text (i.e. transformed the <object> reference into a text reference) and not try to actually download the file?
This is potentially problematic because the users on the importing side may have no actual access to the file, meaning the information is incomplete

So the proposal is: only allow relative URLs. This is what most ReqIF tools use anyway.