When they find one, they copy it, and begin selling it. Mathew Haughey discovered Passport Access , among others, distributing his resume. The response he received was stunning , claiming that everything on the Internet is public domain. While this particular company seems at this time to be reconsidering that position, any number of other resume databases, along with any number of other different types of databases are collecting this sort of information, and selling this information which doesn't even belong to them. Publishers assume that people will access it directly, and that the number of times the publisher's server sends out an object reasonably accurately reflects the number of times its been accessed. . .
Users assume that nobody changed the message en route. . .
There are those claiming they can completely re-purpose all web content for anything they want to do. There are those who claim that they can add anything they want to web content. There are those acting like they can remove any web content they want from a class of users. There are those who think they can grab anything they want and sell it for a profit. Unfortunately, they all derive more benefit from the commons if they place more sheep on it, and, if there is nothing to stop them, the selfish behavior of each individual will ruin the use of the commons for everyone when it is stripped of plant life.