My concern, though, is with regards to the effects on privacy, security and control over web based content. The original web owner loses control over the accuracy and integrity of the clones. Digital signatures and strong key management are needed to avoid this glaring problem. This is an architectural step backwards to centralized management. Strong security controls are needed to protect the central data bases.
Many web pages are dynamic, and the content is refreshed often.
Surfers want the latest and greatest information, not last month s news. Care must be taken to synchronize the html, http server and cached clones so that traffic is routed to the proper server. If the cloned sites at the caches are indexed by search spiders, subsequent searches can find multiple copies of the same pages. Surfers can t tell the original from the clone and can locate erroneous or old information. Cache-servers can easily become unwitting distributors of pornography.