Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

I Require Permission

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:9/2/1999; 8:14:38 AM
Topic:Automated deep linking
Msg #:10452 (In response to 10450)
Prev/Next:10451 / 10453

Thanks Jeremy! This is a very good explanation of the issue.

My own point of view, as the issue develops, as it's sure to, I want to be very clearly on the "I require permission" side.

I agree with the scrapers, that we are all providing a valuable service, that any home page owner would want to take advantage of, if they were aware of the issue, and understood how the web works.

However, from what I know about webmasters at big publishing companies (we're working with a few of them) -- their management will not understand the issue when it pops up to their level. When they learn about scraping, I believe their first response is going to be to sue, and it may be tough to talk them out of it.

That's why I want to do the advance work here and now, make the web developer community aware of the issues, and come to a well thought-out recommendation, to avoid legal controversy, and to move the web forward.

I think what we're doing now is adding an architecture to the web. If we can manage the political and legal issues we can take the steps in a couple of years instead of a dozen.

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