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221 lines
7.9 KiB
221 lines
7.9 KiB
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<head>
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<meta name="generator" content=
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"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 31 October 2006 - Apple Inc. build 13), see www.w3.org" />
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
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"text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
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<title>
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Links and Law: Axioms of Web architecture
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</title>
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<link href="di.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#DDFFDD" text="#000000" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<address>
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Tim Berners-Lee
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<p>
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Date: April 1997
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</p>
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<p>
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Status: personal view only. Editing status: not perfect.
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</p>
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</address>
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<p>
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<a href="Overview.html">Up to Design Issues</a>
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</p>
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<h3>
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Axioms of Web Architecture
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</h3>
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<hr />
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<h1>
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Links and Law: Myths
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</h1>
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<p>
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See <a href="LinkLaw">Links and Law</a> before reading this.
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</p>
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<hr />
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<h3>
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Myth one
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</h3>
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<h3>
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<a name="Myth" id="Myth"></a>
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</h3>
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<p>
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Myth: "A normal link is an incitement to copy the linked
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document in a way which infringes copyright".
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</p>
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<p>
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This is a serious misunderstanding. The ability to refer to a
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document (or a person or any thing else) is in general a
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fundamental right of free speech to the same extent that
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speech is free. Making the reference with a hypertext link is
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more efficient but changes nothing else.
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</p>
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<p>
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When the "speech" itself is illegal, whether or not it
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contains hypertext links, then its illegality should not be
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affected by the fact that it is in electronic form.
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</p>
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<p>
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Users and information providers and lawyers have to share
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this convention. If they do not, people will be frightened to
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make links for fear of legal implications. I received a mail
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message asking for "permission" to link to our site. I
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refused as I insisted that permission was not needed.
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</p>
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<table border="1" cellpadding="2" id="There">
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td>
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<b>There is no reason to have to ask before making a
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link to another site</b>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<p>
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But by the same token,
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</p>
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<table border="1" cellpadding="2">
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td>
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You are responsible for what you say about other
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people, and their sites, etc., on the web as anywhere
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</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<h3>
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Myth Two
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</h3>
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<p>
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Myth: Making a link to a document makes your document more
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valuable and therefore is a right you should pay".
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</p>
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<p>
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This is another dangerous one. It is of course true that your
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document is made more valuable by links to high quality
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relevant other documents. A review in a consumer magazine has
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added value because of the quality of the products to which
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it refers the reader. I may be more valuable to you as a
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person if I refer you to other people by name, phone number
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or URL. This doesn't mean I owe those people something.
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</p>
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<table border="1" cellpadding="2">
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td>
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We cannot regard anyone as having the "right not to be
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referred to" without completely pulling the rug out
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from under free speech.
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</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<h3>
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Myth three
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</h3>
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<p>
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Myth: Making a link to someone's publicly readable document
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is an infringement of privacy.
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</p>
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<p>
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The "security by obscurity" method of hiding things behind
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secret URLs has the property that anyone knowing the URL
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(like a password) can pass it on. This is only a breach of
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confidentiality of there is some confidentiality agreement
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which as been made.
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</p>
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<h3>
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Hall of Flame
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</h3>
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<p>
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Famous cases in which people tried to prevent others linking
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to their web pages include, if I recall correctly,
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Ticketmaster trying to stop the Seattle Sidewalk site linking
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into its pages, so that those looking through the site about
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the town could follow a link and buy tickets to the events.
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This was widely perceived not only as philosophically wrong
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by falling for the myths above, but also crazy, as it was a
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protest against Seattle Sidewalk bring traffic and hence
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business to the Ticketmaster site.
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</p>
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<p>
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In 2002, A Danish court made an injunction preventing a
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Danish news filtering service (effectively a sort of search
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engine) from linking to pages of a Danish newspaper. See the
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slashdot article. I assume that the appeals process will
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clear up this after this time of writing (2002/07). If such
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decisions are accepted, the whole working of the web would
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break down.
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</p>
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<p>
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In 2004, a <a href=
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"http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2004Aug/0029.html">
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comment</a> to the W3C TAG noted that the <a href=
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"http://www.athens2004.com/athens2004/">Athems Olympic
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site</a>, no less, tried to prevent deep linking, to pages
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such as their <a href=
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"http://www.athens2004.com/en/Sports/indexpage">sports
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page</a>. Thus, a vast set of rather unique resources were
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supposed to be not really part of the web. They even try to
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constrain how one will link to entry page. The Athens site
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violates the principles above and sets a very bad example. A
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pity, when the Olympics celebrate what is best in humanity,
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that the web presence should exclude itself from the global
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discourse.
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</p>
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<p>
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In 2010, according to the <a
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href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/technology/09paper.html"
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>New York Times</a>, the Nikkei Shimbun's website decided it could disallow linking,
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even to its home page.
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"Links to <a
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href="http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/freetop.aspx">Nikkei's home page</a>
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require a detailed written application.
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Among other things, applicants must spell out their reasons for linking to the site.
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In addition, regular readers of the site will also notice that the paper
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has disabled the ability to right-click -- which usually brings up a menu
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including "copy link address." The paper's "link policy" ends on an ominous
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note: "We may seek damages for any violations of these rules."
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The Nikkei says the rules are intended to make sure its pay wall is not
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breached and to prevent the linking of its content from "inappropriate" sites.
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</p>
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<h3>
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Conclusions about links
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</h3>
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<p>
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There are some fundamental principles about links on which
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the Web is based. These are principles allow the world of
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distributed hypertext to work. Lawyers, users and technology
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and content providers must all agree to respect these
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principles which have been outlined.
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</p>
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<p>
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It is difficult to emphasize how important these issues are
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for society. The first amendment to the Constitution of the
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United States, for example, addresses the right to speak. The
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right to make reference to something is inherent in that
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right. On the web, to make reference without making a link is
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possible but ineffective - like speaking but with a paper bag
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over your head.
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</p>
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<hr />
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<p>
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<i>A reminder this this is personal opinion, not related to
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W3C or MIT policy. I reserve the right to rephrase this if
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misunderstandings occur, as its always difficult to express
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this sort of thing to a mixed and varied audience.</i>
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</p>
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<hr />
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<p>
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<a href="Metadata.html">Next: Metadata architecture</a>
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</p>
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<p>
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<a href="Overview.html">Up to Design Issues</a>
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</p>
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<address>
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Tim BL
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</address>
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</body>
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</html>
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