Previous message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02904.html --- Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 22:30:20 -0800 To: declanat_private From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewartat_private> Subject: Re: FC: Update on Texas mall assailing critical website with similar name Cc: politechat_private, Hankat_private, kieranat_private Wayback has http://web.archive.org/web/20011205065342/http://www.taubmansucks.com/ dated 12/05/01, though it doesn't seem to have the followon pages, like precisely how the law firm harassing him sucks. A few interesting issues happen when you have a Wayback Machine: - Web pages don't automatically disappear just because a site goes down or a judge in some country orders it taken down. - On the other hand, that doesn't mean you can *depend* on archives; the web crawlers don't catch every page that appears, every time, and if the page is gone by the time the crawler gets to it, too bad. (Unfortunately, this especially means that cracked&scribbled pages don't usually get archived in modified versions, and controversial pages that are taken down quickly may also get missed.) - At some point, the legal system will catch up with the concept of caches and archives. That's probably not entirely good - there are judges who still don't get what a link means, and issue bans on linking to sites, so there may be occasional orders against archive sites who aren't directly a party to court actions. Will erasing archives be treated as destroying evidence? Will archivists be allowed to block their copies without erasing them? - There are other cases where sites are destroyed, like the recent attempts to close critical public-information sites like hazardous-chemical warning sites with the excuse of preventing terrorists from accessing them. The bureaucrats who do this will unfortunately be more consistent about doing this than random-lawsuit judges. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and back where I used to live in New Jersey, there are places with all sorts of dangerous materials that could be a serious public emergency if something happens - and not only does the public have the right to know, but firefighters, medical people, and other emergency workers need to know. - If a site gets shut down, it's probably worthwhile for someone related to or aware of the action to do a quick spider on the archives to make sure the material is preserved. Bill Stewart ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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