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Subject:Re: legality of web links to articles? From:Rev Simon Rumble <simon -at- rumble -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:54:59 +0000
On Tue 12 Feb, Caitlin Gannon said:
> Is there any reason why I can't put a link to a Business Week article or
> Internet World or whatever? I'd think they'd like the traffic, but these
> days copyright is so closely held I'd hate to do something illegal. And
> asking every editor for permission is not exactly a possibility. In
> addition to being webmaster, I'm also trainer and course developer and
> documenter, so it's a wonder I get anything done.
Linking is an inherent feature of the Web. If you don't want people
to link to a piece of content, don't put it on the Web. A stretched
analogy would be insisting that people don't reference a published
article in a bibliography.
>From a business point of view, you are driving traffic to the target
site which should be a _good_ thing.
There was, back in 1997 or so, a case where CNN threatened to sue a
site which linked to specific articles inside a frame with their own
ads surrounding the target article. CNN ended up using a small
Javascript to get their site out of the frames.
It is good ettiquette to get the user out of any frames you have.
This can either be the annoying practise of opening a new window (my
response to that is this: I know how to use my browser and will open a
new window when _I_ want to) or preferably doing a TARGET=_top in the
anchor. Only if you use frames, of course.
The only piece of material that the target site could possibly claim
copyright on is the article title and summary (abstract) but I think
you'll find this would easily be covered by copyright law's Fair Use
provisions. After all, you can site like that in a bibliography so
why not on the Web?
If this was not allowed, www.moreover.com would be out of business.
ObCaveat: IANAL
--
Rev Simon Rumble <simon -at- rumble -dot- net>
www.rumble.net
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin
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