RE: [xml-dev] Re: Abuse of this list

["Len Bullard" <cbullard@hiwaay.net>]

That would be asymmetric force and one approach.  Not a bad way to pit one
requirement against another.  It depends on their need for Google.  That
makes me queasy.  Google is beginning to look more and more like a bad
steward of the information it uses freely commercially.  Something
fundamental is beginning to rot in the wide open web infrastructure.

My problem with the copyright approach is 1) that while legally apt, it
requires serious investment to unless the infringer is polite, 2) it
establishes the practice that until notified, infringement is acceptable. 
So far, that is how it actually works and I do wonder what the legal beagles
say about that.  Somewhat like the spyTrux, the game is now to build up an
otherwise unacceptable basis for a business to a point that the law has to
change to fit the profits possible.  Dangerous turn in the web's evolution,
I'd say.  

The outcome is the same in this as it is in Declan's (See CNet) problem with
the WWW closing the doors on a meeting advertised as public:  the tendency
of open systems to spawn gated subsystems in the face of increasing
inspection.  It is an intellectually interesting phenomenon.

len

From: bryan rasmussen [mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com] 

Not what I'm getting at. The site seems very close to a Spam blog. The
bad thing of a spam blog is it makes for bad content and screws up the
search index rankings of good content.
How so? Because it drives search results and users to the site when
what they actually want is to be go somewhere else. This would not be
a problem if the addition to the content by Stylus increased the
'intelligence' of the content, but it lowers it (maybe that should be
'intelligibility' of the content). An example of heightening the
intelligence of content would be Google's own Groups service.

google has a policy against allowing this kind of content into their
index IIRC. Therefore the solution may not be to use the law but to
report to google. If google deindexes the site they will probably
discontinue their practice in order to get back.

Cheers,
Bryan Rasmussen