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On Mon, 10 Apr 1995, Dan Pacheco wrote:

> 
> >So what happens if this site is successful (they do have some nice search
> >tools) and you set up your own Web site, only to find yourself in competition
> >with your own news?
> 
> I'm just waiting for something like Yahoo (a popular WWW index) to appear
> that has a news section with links to all that day's headlines ... all from
> different newspapers.  Because of the structure and tradition of the Web, no
> one can stop you from including hyperlinks to someone else's content.  The
True, but it is possible to get linked into a server that wants 
authentication.  If the proper authentication information is not include 
with the HTTP request, the server doesn't give you the page, but instead 
invites you to register or give it proper authorization.

> owner of such a home page has no obligation to pay for the right to
> include a link.  He could even organize the links into a news layout that makes
> them appear to be original.
The user and the owner of the destination page may require an agreement 
before the page will be delivered.  Many hosts "Proxy" for just this 
reason.  They use a stock HTTP server and feed "local" URLs.  If the user 
requests a remote URL, the Proxy can deliver the "Site authentication".
Alas, all those cute Netscape features will shred a generic HTTP proxy 
server.  Netscape never made the source code available to the pool of 
engineers that support HTTPD and Mosaic, so the authentication patches 
cannot be used.


> A clever programmer could also create an intelligent news gatherer like
> the World Wide Web Worm that surfs through on-line news sources
> (or for that matter, goes straight to NewsLink ;-) and creates a hypertext
> home page with its findings.  The content is not being copied, only referenced.
> It makes Nexis look like a chew toy.

Actually, for those who have authentication capabilities, it's heaven.  
You can give your customers all the references you want, and they (or 
you) can pay me at the end of the month :-).

(I wrote a slut server, it responds to everybody :-).
(It's late in Battery Park)
>   Dan Pacheco      |  Phone:            | Web:
	Rex Ballard


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Tue Apr 11 10:10:47 1995
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