New features or versions can break older code. One big challenge is protecting users' privacy. In recent months, users learned that software was surreptitiously recording and reporting on their usage patterns. In one case, Seattle-based RealNetworks Inc.'s RealAudio player would report every song a user listened to. In another, a toy cursor would report which sites a user visited.
Most Web operations make money by charging each person for access to data.
This duplicates the traditional publishing model of selling one copy per reader, although it doesn't provide for lending copies to friends. The model also requires tracking what each person reads, a politically explosive strategy. Today, many Web sites simply choose to disclose their surveillance procedures in advance. There's a tremendous utility in personalization. This provision of copyright law gives a legitimate holder of copyrighted material several rights, including the right to make backup copies and to quote small portions of a document.