The caching of multimedia and other files can result in less overall delay when browsing the Web.
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) defines three basic mechanisms for controlling caches: freshness, validation, and invalidation.
The ETag (entity tag) mechanism also allows for both strong and weak validation.
In 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act added rules to the United States Code (17 U.S.C.
§: 512) that exempts system operators from copyright liability for the purposes of caching.