> The URL of the main archiving effort is <URL:http://www.archive.org/>
> For the most part, I think it's great that someone is making an effort to
> save all this for posterity. It should provide a very interesting window
> into the past at some point.
While it is great that something is being archived, it is more
problematic how they will provide the information to others without
violating copyright law. If they provide the information too freely, it
is wholesale theft; if not freely enough, it is just not useful.
Sure, I would love to be able to see what a typical Roman "newspaper"
said about Augustus Caesar, as well as what the local graffiti in Rome
said about him. But that is long after the participants are dead. Some
partchment survives, as do some more recent Betamax tapes and eight inch
floppies. Will Archive's media? Already, NASA has real problems
retrieving data on older magnetic tapes.
What I kept asking Archive to do, is to return some value to the
community in the form of statistical reports and reports on trends, in
exchange for their efforts. That met on deaf ears, as they spoke of how
great it will be for them to sell information to researchers... pages that
WE created, pages that are OWNED by clients!
Wouldn't you love to know what percentage of sites are frame based?
What percentage of percentage of urls point to PDF or JPG vs GIF objects?
What the statistical curve is for on-site vs off-site URL'? Or the use of
<UL> vs <OL> tags? Or the statistics on web page background colors? Now
that I consider useful information! As would be the ability to retrieve
earlier copies of MY OWN works after a server crash for a modest retrieval
fee.
In exchange for information and services like that, I would welcome
their archiving my works. But copying my work so they can later sell it
in my lifetime? That's theft, plain and simple.
As you can see, my opinoin has not changed since we discussed this on
this list several years ago. Viewing their pages, neither, it seems, has
theirs.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------- Every mouse click, a Vote ---------------
------ Do they vote For, or Against your pages? -------
-------------------------------------------------------
Hit and Link Analysis: http://www.mall-net.com/webcons/
-------------------------------------------------------
Web Imagineering -- Analysis, Architecture, Automation,
Advanced CGI-BIN Programming, and Content Development.
<A HREF="http://www.mall-net.com"> www.Mall-Net.com</A>
* Anti-Spam FAQ: http://www.mall-net.com/spamfaq.html
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
