[Bug-gnupedia] The Problem with Purity

[John Goodwin]

The Purity Requirement (as I defined it in a
previous post) is hard to meet with existing
technology. Consider the following:

1. You have a web page with a link to an FDL'd
document. At a later date, that document is
removed and replaced by a non-free document. You
have now broken the proposed nature of the
encyclopedia.

2. Suppose you use a "persistent redirect"
mechanism and put an FDL license on the target
page, which immediately redirects to a non-free
page. This violates the spirit of the Encyclopedia
but does it violate the letter? I think this
allows its content to be subverted.

#2 also means the persistent URLs can be OK today,
but subverted in the future, when an evil
corporation decides it would be fun to replace the
physics course by a geographically-sensitive add
for a local college.

I think these sort of issues uncover the
architectural problems with the announced system,
and need clarification.

=googol=