URIs quack like a duck

Tim Berners-Lee wrote:

> Liam said:
> >All of these problems stem from using a URI as a name for something
> >instead of idenftifying the location for something.
>
> No no no no no.  An HTTP URI  is a name, and there is a lookup function
> for it.  There are not rules against reuse imposed globally, but there are
> as many levels of indirection as you like available.
>
> Please stop refering to it as a location....!

The problem is that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's hard to
prevent people from imposing duckish expectations on it.  URIs create those
expectations.

Paul Abrahams