Is the Flickr API a National Treasure? 101
First time accepted submitter somekind writes "Over the past few months Twitter imposed restrictions on the use of its client API, and Facebook shut down the facial recognition API supporting face.com after acquiring the company. Mathew Ingram noted these and other examples (Google starting to charge for high-volume use of Google Maps) as evidence that 'open APIs' published by a single vendor can't be trusted by outside developers. Worried about the possibility that Yahoo! might do the same with Flickr, Dave Winer has just launched a petition to Obama asking the President to declare the Flickr API a National Historic Landmark, thus (by Dave's reckoning) legally protected from arbitrary withdrawal or wholesale changes by its corporate masters."
No it is not (Score:5, Insightful)
If we learned anything, software dies. Twitter, Facebook, Flicker and whatever flavor of the times websites eventually be forgotten like MySpace, Geocities, AOL and Yahoo
Uh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dave Winer has just launched a petition to Obama asking the President to declare the Flickr API a National Historic Landmark, thus (by Dave's reckoning) legally protected from arbitrary withdrawal or wholesale changes by its corporate masters."
Yeah nice meaningless stunt.
If the API is truly "open" then this guy can buy the servers and the network connectivity and the electricity and the hosting support needed to host the sotfware that keeps it going in perpetuity and he won't have to worry about Flickr suing him becuase it's "open".
Something tells me he is more upset that somebody else won't be paying for all of those things for his personal gain. Well guess what: When you live by the "free" service you die by the "free" service.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No it is not (Score:5, Insightful)
If we learned anything, software dies. Twitter, Facebook, Flicker and whatever flavor of the times websites eventually be forgotten like MySpace, Geocities, AOL and Yahoo
Google is a prime example of trying out fancy things (even buying companies with awesome ideas), and being very happy to let them die, abandoning users. That would all be fine, if another company could pick things up, but software patents in the US are stupid.
Re:What an incredibly stupid and evil idea. (Score:3, Insightful)
If he doesn't work there anymore, that pretty much answers your question.
You can't hold him accountable for what a company he used to work for does in the future.
Never know, that might even have been part of why he left.
Dave should own it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No it is not (Score:5, Insightful)
Critical mass? There was a time when most people on the internet used AOL. There was a time when most web pages were geocities pages.
Everything fades eventually. Facebook, twitter, Ozimandius, whatever.