so from this sentence I gather this is no longer considered a bug and is now a feature?One thing to watch out for is Arch Protection - it's the same as Protection, but it can be cast on all party members in a certain radius, so it's easy to have it cast on you accidentally if you spend time partied with mages. Casting regular Protection should turn it off, though.
regardless, I think Arch Protection should be changed or replaced with a different spell.
maybe replace it with a spell that brings up a gump that lets you choose which of the 3 (RA, pro, magic reflect) you want, then lets you target another player (in guild/alliance/partied)