These questions are equivalent:

   - Can an integrity value be computed for each SPDXv3 Element?
   - Are SPDXv3 Elements immutable?

The RDF Concepts <https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-concepts/> document discusses
mutability:

----------------------------------------------

*1.5 RDF and Change over Time*


   1. The RDF data model is atemporal: RDF graphs are static snapshots of
   information.
   2. However, RDF graphs can express information about events and about
   temporal aspects of other entities, given appropriate vocabulary terms.
   3. Since RDF graphs are defined as mathematical sets, adding or removing
   triples from an RDF graph yields a different RDF graph.
   4. We informally use the term RDF source to refer to a persistent yet
   mutable source or container of RDF graphs. An RDF source is a resource that
   may be said to have a state that can change over time. A snapshot of the
   state can be expressed as an RDF graph. For example, any web document that
   has an RDF-bearing representation may be considered an RDF source. Like all
   resources, RDF sources may be named with IRIs and therefore described in
   other RDF graphs.

Intuitively speaking, changes in the universe of discourse can be reflected
in the following ways:

a. An IRI, once minted, should never change its intended referent. (See URI
persistence [WEBARCH].)

b. Literals, by design, are constants and never change their value.

c. A relationship that holds between two resources at one time may not hold
at another time.

d. RDF sources may change their state over time. That is, they may provide
different RDF graphs at different times.

e. Some RDF sources may, however, be immutable snapshots of another RDF
source, archiving its state at some point in time.

----------------------------------------------


SPDXv3 Elements form a graph where each node is an Element identified by
its "id" IRI.  The Element graph [statement 1] is distinct from Artifacts -
the ArtifactURL property of an Artifact Element may, for example, reference
a specific version (immutable) or the latest version (mutable) of an entity
[statement 2].

It seems obvious to me that statement 1. (every RDF graph is a static
snapshot) and bullet a. (an IRI assigned to an Element always refers to the
same Element) require that the Element (all of its properties including its
"id" IRI) are immutable.

The lifecycle of RDF graphs is addressed by statements 3 and 4: If a graph
is created from Elements 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, then it is fixed forever.  If
Element 6 is then created, referencing previous Elements, it yields a
different RDF graph since it adds an Element to the previous graph.  None
of Elements 1-5 reference Element 6 in either graph.

Do we agree?

Dave


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