RE: Micropayments and principle 4

> Elliotte Rusty Harold
>
> Priniciple 4 states:
> 
> 4. Representation retrieval is safe:
> Agents do not incur obligations by retrieving a representation.
> 
> I am worried that this precludes the eventual development of 
> micropayments; in particular pay for page models. [...]

Obligation is meant in a technical sense. This is clear if you follow
the link through to the 'GET-7' document Dan Connolly wrote [1]. Outside
the technical domain, the claim is contradicted a) by rulings such as
Ebay v biddersEdge, b) there is a Web Services Activity inside the W3C
and Web Services strongly implies a Web of obligation between buyers and
sellers of services irregardless of HTTP details. Perhaps the document
should be more specific as to what it means by obligation, or perhaps
the link to the qualifying document is enough.

Bill de hÓra 
--
Propylon
www.propylon.com 

[1] http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/get7

  

Received on Monday, 9 September 2002 10:37:31 UTC