Re: lynx-dev User Agent

[Klaus Weide]

On Sun, 8 Aug 1999, David Woolley wrote:

> Some sites screen out browsers because of abuses by those browsers - in
> particular changing the User Agent when using Lynx in crawl mode, or for
> automated fetching, may well constitute theft of service.

"May well constitute theft of service" - you have repeated this several
times now IIRC (in this or similar formulations), it seems like you are
somehow endorsing that view.  I do not believe that it "may well
constitute" theft of service.  I can believe that some people may well
want to make that claim, but that doesn't make it so.  Whether any kind
of "theft" is actually involved isn't solely up to the offended party to
decide.

It is the right of those sites to deny access to their service to people
who would use the service in a way the provider does not agree with.
That doesn't mean that legal categories like "theft of service" are
appropriate here.


    Klaus