[Air-L] on the Wayback Machine (was public/private [part 1 of 2])

[Kevin Guidry]

On 8/13/07, Michael Zimmer <michael.zimmer at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> I guess what I'm wondering is why there seems to be a presumption
> that just because I posted something on a website in 1999 I want it
> to always be accessible.

   I don't think that anyone has posted an adequate response to this
statement.  If I am wrong and I have missed the response in this
rather lengthy and fast-moving exchange, please accept my apologies!
   I am very wary of projecting my own knowledge - technical, legal,
or otherwise - onto others and assuming they share that knowledge.
But I fear that we might be guilty of that, consciously or
unconsciously.  Yes, *we* all know that anything placed online is,
unless specifically protected (passwords, robots.txt, etc.), in the
public and fair game for a number of uses and abuses.  But the
question that I would like answered is: How widespread is this
awareness and how evenly is this awareness spread?  Are we making an
unwarranted assumption and in what cases is that assumption
unwarranted?
   I've got some interesting anecdotes related to this topic but I'm
sure there is some data out there to help answer these questions and I
am hopeful that someone familiar with it can point us to it.  I've
worked with and encountered too many people who are ignorant of the
inherently public and archived nature of the Internet to take that
knowledge for granted in others.


Kevin