Subject: Re: WWW & Copyright - is _linking_ illegal?
brad@clarinet.com (Brad Templeton) writes:
>Now comes the tricky part that only a judge can answer ...
>What if somebody puts up their own material on their own page, but says,
>At first I felt there was nothing (legal) they could do to stop you, but the
I lean more toward your second thought than your initial reaction. If I
>Does that mean you can't put the good stuff on your hot list? Well,
If you mean hot list, as in a personal hot list in the browser menu, and
--
Date: 15 May 1995 21:57:23 -0400
Organization: Robert J. Keller, P.C. (Federal Telecommunications Law)
References:
<3p8hbb$f86@clark.net>
>"The only way people are to download this is coming in through my pages,
>because I have put up ads to pay for it that way. Don't link directly to
>the good stuff."
>more I think about contributory infringement, the less I would be willing
>to bet the farm on that.
in fact have a copyright in material in my web page, then I ought to be
able to at least attempt to prevent people from linking to it if I so
choose ... even though it is probably difficult to stop them as a
practical matter (Hmmm. I guess I could have one static URL ot the main
page wiht the ads and then have all the "good stuff" hanging on dynamic
URLs, but then somebody/something has to go in and change all those
pointers constantly). But the practical difficulty of preventing
infringement should not, in most cases, determine the legality. I mean we
all know there is very little the editor of that expensive reference
volume can do about its proximity to the library photocopy machine if the
librarian is not particularly concerned with IP rights. But that doesn't
make copying pages 24 - 492 any less of an infringement.
>technically, yes. But nobody is going to sue you for that. They might sue
>you if you put up a public link, though.
_not_ a list of "other neat places" on a public web page, then I suspect
we are getting into an interesting area of possible (probable?) fair use.
Bob Keller (KY3R) Email: rjk@telcomlaw.com
Law Office of Robert J. Keller, P.C. Telephone: 301.229.5208
Federal Telecommunications Law Facsimile: 301.229.6875
http://www.clark.net/pub/rjk/ | ftp://ftp.eznet.net/pub/telcomlaw/