How is security getting thrown under the bus?

-Ross.

On Wednesday, November 6, 2013, Cary Gordon wrote:

> It sounds like we are willing to throw security under the bus for an edge
> case, although I am sure that I am missing some subtlety
>
> Cary
>
> On Nov 5, 2013, at 10:27 AM, Ross Singer <[log in to unmask]<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 12:07 PM, William Denton <[log in to unmask]<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> (Question:  Why does HTTPS complicate screen-scraping?  Every decent
> tool
> >> and library supports HTTPS, doesn't it?)
> >>
> >
> > Birkin asked me this same question, and I realized I should clarify what
> I
> > meant.  I was mostly referring to existing screen scrapers/existing web
> > sites.  If you redirect every request from http to https, this will
> > probably break things.  I think the Open Library example that Karen
> > mentioned is a good case study.
> >
> > And it's pretty different for a library or tool to support HTTPS and a
> > specific app to be expecting it.  If you follow the thread around that OL
> > change, it appears there are issues with Java (as one example)
> arbitrarily
> > consuming HTTPS (from what I understand, you need to have the cert
> > locally?), but I don't know enough about it to say for certain.  I think
> > there would also probably be potential issues around mashups (AJAX, for
> > example), but seeing as code4lib.org doesn't support CORS, not really a
> > current issue.  Does apply more generally to your question about library
> > websites at large, though.
> >
> > Anyway, I agree with you that the option for both should be there.  I'm
> not
> > just not convinced that HTTPS-all-the-time is necessary for all web use
> > cases.
> >
> > -Ross.
>