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Wayback Machine Safe, Settlement Disappointing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-me-out-of-here-mr-wizard dept.

Jibbanx writes "Healthcare Advocates and the Internet Archive have finally resolved their differences, reaching an undisclosed out-of-court settlement. The suit stemmed from HA's anger over the Wayback Machine showing pages archived from their site even after they added a robots.txt file to their webserver. While the settlement is good for the Internet Archive, it's also disappointing because it would have tested HA's claims in court. As the article notes, you can't really un-ring the bell of publishing something online, which is exactly what HA wanted to do. Obeying robots.txt files is voluntary, after all, and if the company didn't want the information online, they shouldn't have put it there in the first place."

4 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. I want.... by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Funny
    Obeying robots.txt files is voluntary, after all, and if the company didn't want the information online, they shouldn't have put it there in the first place."

    I want a search engine that only indexes items excluded in the robots.txt file :-)
    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  2. Don't need no Wayback by kaizenfury7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you go directly to their site, you get a version of their site that looks like it's from 1995.

    1. Re:Don't need no Wayback by cptgrudge · · Score: 2, Funny

      Quick! Get those people some Rounded Corners and Gradients!

      Welcome to Web 2.0!

      --
      Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
  3. Re:I sense a collection of poor analogies here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If you streak through a mall naked and someone snaps your picture, too bad: you can't make the photos disappear.

    It wasn't me. It was my imaginary twin brother!!!