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Weblog:   Do We Need A Bill of Rights for Web Services?
Subject:   User Contributions
Date:   2003-06-04 18:28:02
From:   chromatic
Remember the controversy over GraceNote restricting access to the publicly-populated CDDB? Any web service that aggregates my content (whether journal entries on a weblog site, project data on SourceForge, or reviews on Amazon) as a major source of revenue ought to let me export or remove that content. It's a sign of good faith that a business built on contributions from a community is willing to let the community remove those contributions if the business lets it down.
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  • User Contributions
    2003-06-05 00:18:20  pwainewright [View]

    Users have responsibilities too, and that includes not abritrarily withdrawing postings that form part of a published archive. For example, I don't think it would be a good idea to allow companies to retrospectively withdraw press releases they'd previously posted to my site, just because they decide they want to rewrite their corporate history.
    The solution here is not to give users the right to withdraw content, but for aggregators and publishers to be clear upfront about how they'll use the content; and for users to refrain from posting if they disagree with those policies.
    When it comes down to it, this is all about getting a service mentality; which means getting used to the idea that it's bad business practice to offer a service without publishing details of service commitments and caveats.
    • User Contributions
      2003-06-06 17:36:41  chromatic | O'Reilly AuthorO'Reilly Blogger [View]

      Agreed, the service mentality is the right approach. I just want some guarantee of data accessibility. If I'm storing my information on your server to some benefit to you, I want an export mechanism.

      I still think it's important that I can take my ball and go home, but it's definitely an action of last resort. It's a lot like the freedom to fork, in code terms.
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