Re: URI for language identifiers

[I'm trying to get this thread back on a single track, so I'm responding to
this particular message, as much of the previous messages (mine included)
are getting off on tangents.]

From: <Patrick.Stickler@nokia.com>
Subject: RE: URI for language identifiers
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2003 10:27:37 +0300

> > Oh agreed, the US has a very expansive notion of property.  
> > However, even
> > in this very expansive notion of property there are (still) 
> > considerable
> > ``fair use'' provisions.  Hopefully these provisions will not be so
> > weakened that I will be prohibited from making the claim that the
> > denotation of http://www.whitehouse.gov/#43 is Tipper Gore's husband.
> 
> I would hope so.
> 
> Patrick

But it appears to me that this is precisely what you are trying to prohibit
through specifications instead of legal means.


I do not see any normative aspect of the World Wide Web or the Semantic Web
that provides any indication that there is a denotation authority for URI
references.  I do not see any normative aspect of the World Wide Web or the
Semantic Web that mandates a single denotation for every URI reference.

I do see many indications of how one might build such a denotation
authority, if this was thought to be a good idea.  I also see many
indications of how one might build a theory of denotation for certain kinds
of URI references (notably excluding http URI references with fragment
identifiers as they are used in RDF).

However, I think that it is a bad idea to base the entirety of denotation
in the Semantic Web on such principles.  I strongly believe that this would
serve as a bar to using the Semantic Web for many purposes.


Peter F. Patel-Schneider
Bell Labs Research
Lucent Technologies

Received on Thursday, 3 April 2003 07:11:11 UTC