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The resolver would never return an error, but instead pass the entire identifier string along to a single redirection address (e.g., http://arxiv.org
). This allows the collection to treat the different forms of the URI however it needs to.
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Jon: This might be a way for a collection to continue its own branding when publishing otherwise meaningless persistent identifiers, as for example registering the domain name handle.ecommons.cornell.edu and directing it to http://hdl.handle.net, so that a URL in the form http://handle.ecommons.cornell.edu/1813/734 could be published instead of http://hdl.handle.net/1813/734; both would resolve to http://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/734