What's your point? Much software is in the public domain, yet software is
ownable. Just because names are ownable doesn't mean that all names are
owned.
>For example, the name "Spencertown, New York" is not registered anywhere.
>Spencertown is a part of the Town of Austerlitz ("Towns" in New York
>State and New England are roughly what is called "townships" elsewhere
>in the U.S.: registered land units larger than a county). But it
>is custom alone that says what is, and what is not, Spencertown.
>
>Nevertheless, it makes sense as a topic of conversation. "I am going
>to Spencertown" is intelligible even though Spencertown is not
>subject to precise definition. How shall we handle names of this sort?
It's intelligible if you know one thing:
1. What the name space context is (towns and townships in New York)
How do we handle that? By establishing a name space context and then
providing services for resolving names in it:
John: I'm going to "Spencertown" today.
Eliot: Oh, what or where is "Spencertown"?
John: It's a little town in New York.
Eliot: Never heard of it. Can you show me where it is on a map?
John: Sure. {Gets out map, shows which Spencertown he means}
Eliot: {Having received resource referenced by John's use of
the name "Spencertown"}. Cool, have fun.
This is no different from any other name resolution we do today. There are
no unique problems here. There are no unique solutions.
Cheers,
E.
-- <Address HyTime=bibloc> W. Eliot Kimber, Senior Consulting SGML Engineer ISOGEN International Corp. 2200 N. Lamar St., Suite 230, Dallas, TX 75202. 214.953.0004 www.isogen.com </Address>