From: Brad Templeton (brad@templetons.com)
Date: Wed Jun 06 2001 - 16:28:17 CDT
On Wed, Jun 06, 2001 at 05:09:48PM -0400, J.B. Moreno wrote:
> Protocol wise this may be ignored by existing servers (for most of them it
> being a moot point), but legally it should be very compelling (so much so
> that if we include it we should also include a NOTE about *minimum* values
> and the fact that current servers don't handle it on a protocol level).
>
> --
> J.B. Moreno
In the interests of history, I think it would be nice if the date header
expressed a desire that the posting not be served from after a given
date until the death of the author, and that an additional flag be required
to suggest that the posting should also not be made available after that
death.
Note I'm not saying you can't ask that it never be served, you can ask
that. I'm just talking about defining the default in a way that works
best for posterity. Of course the default is no header at all, but I
can see some posting programs, and some users, putting this header on
by default, rather than on a case by case basis, for obvious reasons,
and I'm saying that let's add another level to request erasure from
history.
How do you define the death of the author? If you define it literally,
it means it would allow historians to put up archives of the postings
of certain historical figures (or ordinary people in their historical
papers). You could also define an assumption that 90 years after the
post the death can be assumed unless you know otherwise.