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cc-licenses - Re: about the option to reference the license with a link to a URL

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: jbn AT forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson-Owens)
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: about the option to reference the license with a link to a URL
  • Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 14:21:18 -0600

Sunir Shah wrote:
> I don't think that domains have a tendency to be stolen.

It has nothing to do with being reassigned without your permission. One can
lose their domain name by not paying one's registrar in time or losing the
hosting for the website at that domain (in either case you're not delivering
what web users want and expect). Even changing URLs by moving content from
one place to another at the server can cause this problem. The web is just
too transient and too young to have developed the kind of dedicated
workforce that can compare to what the USPS has had for decades.

> We only hear about the few cases where they are. If you
> so paranoid, there are always PURLs, which might have a
> longer life expectancy, though not an infinite one.
>
> http://www.purl.org

I think this service, including MakeAShorterLink and TinyURL, exacerbate the
problem, not fix it. They introduce a whole new transaction leg where
problems can occur. The various similar services don't share databases, they
don't share mirrored content (for those services that mirror), nor do they
provide a mechanism to fallback gracefully (thus presenting the illusion of
unbroken hosting). I would never tell people the best way to access my
website is through any of these services. I'm not going to put my
metaphorical eggs in someone else's basket if I can help it. Web based
services do go away and when these do they'll make a lot of people's e-mail
lists and newsposts useless. Ironically, one example the PURL FAQ gives
(http://purl.oclc.org/NET/INTERCAT) "has been deactivated and can not be
resolved".

I was never arguing from perfection or infinitely long-lasting domains and
websites. That's just a strategy for reinforcing prejudices, I am talking
about perfectly real things that happen every day and comparing these things
to the long history of the USPS. Someday web services may stick around on
the order of time comparable to the USPS. But none of us will see that day.
This is not paranoia, it is practical to recognize that the web is not as
reliable as the USPS.




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