It's OK to put a link to another site on my page, right? Maybe not - NetscapeWorld - June 1997

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>It's OK to put a link to another site on my page, right? Maybe not - NetscapeWorld - June 1997</TITLE> <META NAME="description" content="It's OK to put a link to another site on my page, right? Maybe not -- NetscapeWorld, June 1997"> <META NAME="keywords" content="NetscapeWorld, Netscape, The Enterprise, frame, link, Ticketmaster, Microsoft, TotalNews, The Shetland News, law, Compuserve"> <META NAME="author" content="Rick Cook"> </HEAD> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" ALINK="#FF0000" VLINK="#551A8B"> <BASE TARGET="_top"> <CENTER><A HREF="http://ad.preferences.com/click.ng;spacedesc=OracleDesigner_NetscapeED_468x60-RunOfSite_Any&time=2000.6.11.1.10.54"><IMG VSPACE="8" SRC="http://ad.preferences.com/image.ng;spacedesc=OracleDesigner_NetscapeED_468x60-RunOfSite_Any&time=2000.6.11.1.10.54" height="60" width="468" BORDER="0" ALT="Click Here for Oracle!"></A></CENTER> <center> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.nw.com/homepage;sz=468x60"><IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.nw.com/homepage;sz=468x60" border=0 height=60 width=468></A> </center> <IMG WIDTH="100%" HEIGHT="2" SRC="/netscapeworld/icons/red.gif">  <table cellpadding="5" border="0"> <tr> <td valign="CENTER">  <IMG WIDTH="182" HEIGHT="39" SRC="/netscapeworld/icons/practices.gif" ALT="Best Practices"> <H1 ALIGN="CENTER"> It's OK to put a link to another site on my page, right? Maybe not </H1> <H3 ALIGN="CENTER"> The global village idiots vs. the Web's information utopia. Who wins <EM>will</EM> affect you! </H3> <table vspace="5" width="100%" cellpadding="5" border="1"> <tr> <td> <STRONG>Summary</STRONG><BR> Can you be sued for what isn't on your Web site? Perhaps. The issues of "framing" one site on another, or hyperlinking to another site have come to a head in a flurry of legal cases from Seattle to Scotland. Here's a run-down on the problem. (<EM>2,600 words</EM>) </td> </tr> </table>  </TD> <TD WIDTH="137" VALIGN="TOP">  <center> <font size="+1" FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif"><strong>NetscapeWorld</strong></font> <br> <font size="-1" FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif">has become</font> <br> <a href="/index.html"><img vspace="0" border="0" width="107" height="58" src="/netscapeworld/ned-icons/ned-logo.107.stack.gif" alt="[Netscape Enterprise Developer Table of Contents]"></a> <br> <img vspace="5" border="0" width="107" height="2" src="/netscapeworld/icons/red.gif" alt=""> <br> <font size="-1" FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif">June 1997</font> <br> </center> <font FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif"> <a href="/netscapeworld/nw-06-1997/nw-06-toc.html"><img vspace="0" align="bottom" border="0" width="13" height="13" src="/netscapeworld/ned-icons/a-blue.gif" alt="[June 1997 Table of Contents]">Table of Contents</a> <br> <a href="/netscapeworld/common/nw.backissues.topical.html"><img vspace="0" border="0" width="13" height="13" src="/netscapeworld/ned-icons/a-blue.gif" alt="[Archives]">Topical Index</a> <br> <a href="/netscapeworld/search.html"><img vspace="0" border="0" width="13" height="13" src="/netscapeworld/ned-icons/a-blue.gif" alt="[Search]">Search</a> </font>  </TD> </TR> </TABLE>  <DL> <DD> <font size="+3">C</font>an you be sued for what's on your Web site? That's a no-brainer. Of course you can. Your Web site is subject to the laws of libel, copyright and such just like any other corporate "publication." <STRONG>Note</STRONG>: It's not clear that a Web site is a "publication" in the legal sense, but even if it isn't, this remains true. <P> But can you be sued for what's <EM>not</EM> on your Web site? That turns out to be a much tougher question. Six months ago it only involved a couple of small businesses in one of the isolated corners of Europe. By last month, Ticketmaster, the entertainment ticketing service, was suing Microsoft; several major newspapers were suing a small news provider called TotalNews -- and a lot of people were getting very nervous. <P> In the worst (and most unlikely case) the outcome of this barrage of legal hand grenades into the Internet henhouse would be to make hyperlinks as we know them just about illegal and to make the frames feature originated in Netscape Navigator legal poison. Probable outcomes range from no change at all to significant restrictions on the practice of hyperlinking and framing Web pages. It will probably be a couple of years before the issues are completely settled, but we should have some legal guidance in the next three or four months. <P> For Webmasters this is important right now for two reasons. A lot of people simply don't understand what this is all about and some of those people may be the superiors who set policy for your Web site. It's a help to have answers when they come around with questions. The second reason is that a little care and common sense today can make things a lot smoother no matter how these cases come out. <P> <DT> <FONT SIZE="+1"><STRONG>The background: A hyperlink could send you to a Georgia jail</STRONG></FONT> <DD> The first flurry of attention grew out of a spat between two newspapers on the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland. Now besides tourists, tweeds and ponies, the windswept bits of land are world-famous for the first fruits of that lawsuit over hyperlinks. (See the <A HREF="#resources">resources</A> list below.) <P> An upstart on-line paper "The Shetland News" would occasionally provide a reference and a URL to let readers link to a story from the Web site of the print "Shetland Times." The News didn't copy the Times' stories, which everyone agrees would have violated copyright. It merely referenced the headline in the competing paper and provided a hyperlink to the story. <P> The proprietors of the papers have, as they say, a history, including a suit for wrongful dismissal by the publisher of the News against the publisher of the Times, which was settled out of court. However there is also a very real issue here. Since the News sent readers directly to stories on the inside pages of the Times, they missed much of the Times site's advertising. This could cost the Times money and it benefited the News by enlarging the scope of its coverage. <P> In late 1996, Scottish authorities granted the equivalent of a preliminary injunction against the News, forbidding it to mention the Times's stories or URLs. <STRONG>Note</STRONG>: I weasel the wording here a bit because I'm not sure just who granted the injunction. The British accounts make it sound like it came from the Home Secretary for Scotland. Scots law is not the same as English law in a lot of details. <P> If this principle is widely adopted it would mean that you could not hyperlink to another site without explicit permission. Since many sites include dozens or hundreds of links, gathering such permission could become a tremendous burden. <P> The latest case on the issue of linking -- at least as I write this -- occurred in Seattle in the middle of May 1997. Ticketmaster, a giant in the entertainment ticketing business, sued Microsoft because Microsoft was linking its Seattle Sidewalk local events site to Ticketmaster's where tickets to events can be purchased. Ticketmaster claims this amounts to misappropriating Ticketmaster's intellectual property. <P> Why does Ticketmaster care? First, because if you come into the Ticketmaster site from Seattle Sidewalk you go through an intermediate Sidewalk page featuring advertising and logos for three credit card companies. (Ticketmaster has a special relationship with Mastercard.) Second, (and perhaps more importantly) Ticketmaster already has an agreement with one of Microsoft's competitors in the local content business to pay royalties for linking to its site. These royalties represent a potentially important source of on-line income for Ticketmaster. <P> Pessimistically, these controversy could lead to something worse than mere copyright infringement. Someone could go to jail. Last year the state of Georgia passed a law making it a crime to link to someone's site without their permission. And don't think you're safe just because you're not in Georgia. There is a body of cases suggesting that you can be charged under such a law even if you never set foot in Georgia. (See <em>`Where In The World Is The World-Wide Web'</em> in the <A HREF="#resources">resources</A>.) <P> Meanwhile, the German representative for Compuserve has been charged under German anti-pornography laws because Compuserve made available material from Internet adult newsgroups. The dirty pictures in question weren't even posted to Compuserve's servers (which aren't in Germany). German users just used Compuserve's network to link to them on the Internet. <P> <DT> <FONT SIZE="+1"><STRONG>Framing another site draws lawsuits</STRONG></FONT> <DD> Hyperlinks are only half the controversy. The other high-profile case involves `framing' -- the practice of displaying someone else's Web page in a frame on your page. <P> Last year a small company called TotalNews opened a site that offered one-stop shopping for information from several major news organizations, including the Washington Post, Reuters, and CNN. The news organization's page would be displayed in one frame and other frames would display TotalNews' own logo, ads, and such. <P> In February several news organizations, including CNN and Reuters, sued TotalNews, claiming infringement, misappropriation and trademark dilution among other things. <P> <DT> <FONT SIZE="+1"><STRONG>Attitudes towards links, frames vary</STRONG></FONT> <DD> All this is complicated because to most people links are an integral part of the Web, and lot of people don't see anything wrong with framing. Unlike copying, framing doesn't involve taking the material, merely including it by reference in a frame on the page. Besides, the argument goes, you're providing exposure for the page, including "hits" every time someone accesses that frame. And indeed many content providers don't much care. They figure they're getting more exposure for their pages. <P> But a lot of content providers do care. For one thing, the framed material is seen in the context of another page, including the other page's advertising, logos, URL and the rest. For another, framing a page means the originator's server has to handle the load for the benefit of the framer. <P> Now you can find a lot of people on the Internet who will assure you with great authority that the whole issue is nonsense because anything on the Web is free for copying and re-use. Of course you can also find people on the Internet who will assure you with great authority that the Earth is flat. These folks are best ignored unless your own lawyers tell you the same thing. <P> Occasionally you'll run across someone who is what our English cousins call "too clever by half." This person knows that images like Bugs Bunny, Bart Simpson and Barney are copyrighted but tries to get around that by framing images from another Web site. The theory being that since you're not copying directly, but showing what's on another page, you're not violating copyright. <P> The theory is legally dubious and you do <EM>not</EM> want to be the test case. The cartoonists might be funny, but the lawyers for their syndicates and corporations have no sense of humor at all. They also have the dispositions of rabid wolverines and delight in making trouble for anyone who might possibly, conceivably have somehow violated those copyrights, no matter how innocent, incidental or bizarre the circumstances. <P> (Right now I have a friend who is fighting with the lawyers for a major cartoonist because my friend's magazine column included material he started acquiring before the cartoonist was even born. It happened to be similar to some stuff that had appeared in one of the cartoonist's books. That was all it took.) <P> A related issue occurs when someone uses a copyrighted image, say a corporate logo as a clickable image map to link someone to the corporate site. This is quite logical, but it is also a copyright violation unless you have the permission of the logo's owner. <P> Linking and framing can be a problem in one of two ways. Either you're being linked or framed when you don't want to or you're linking to or framing material from another site inappropriately. <P> Inappropriately doesn't necessarily mean illegally, or even without the originator's consent. Let's say you decide to publish an on-line catalog and rather than laboriously copy the content of your distributor's on-line catalog, you simply link to it. The move saves you work and your distributor probably won't mind. Except let's say the distributor's on-line catalog includes his wholesale price list -- which you have now provided to your customers thanks to the link to the distributors' page. <P> <DT> <FONT SIZE="+1"><STRONG>Taking action</STRONG></FONT> <DD> Before we get to the practicalities, let's address the chicken-little atmosphere this situation has produced in some quarters. First, neither framing or linking has been declared illegal anywhere. No one has "won" or "lost" on the issue of links and framing. The Shetland newspapers case hasn't even been heard by the Scottish courts and a ruling on the first round isn't expected until summer. The TotalNews and Ticketmaster cases have only been filed. As far as I know, no one has even been charged under the Georgia law and it is being challenged in court by a coalition including the Electronic Frontier Foundation. <P> Second, it's extremely unlikely that linking will be declared illegal, at least according to the experts. As attorney Alan J. Hartnick put it in an article in the New York Law Journal: "Does one need permission to link on to another site? The answer, based on common usage, is "no". . . Analytically, there is an implied license of the person or party creating a link so that user by linking may access material on the pointed site that may encompass copyrighted content." (See <A HREF="#resources">the resources section below</A>. See also an analysis of the Shetland Times case.) <P> There may be identification requirements to make sure users understand they are linking to another site, but that's much easier to deal with. Framing is a trickier question, but it is less common. While framing in the way TotalNews is doing it may be shaky, framing with permission of the originating site is unlikely to be affected. Overall, the sky isn't falling and a little courtesy and common sense will almost certainly avoid problems <P> However you feel about it, linking is a way of life on the Web and framing has become something of a fad. We can expect to see a lot more of it, at least until its legal status is settled. The job for Webmasters is to avoid framing and linking problems. <P> In the case of your own site, part of the fix is an established, enforced policy regarding framing or using material from other sites. The other part of the fix is technological. We'll deal with the technological fixes next month. <P> <P><DL> <DT><STRONG>Ask</STRONG> <DD>This is the simplest, easiest precaution. If you want to frame or otherwise include material from someone else's site, drop them e-mail and ask permission. It's a polite gesture and it short-circuits a lot of problems. Save their response. (<STRONG>Editor's note</STRONG>: NetscapeWorld's<EM> readers have the editor's permission to <STRONG>link</STRONG> to any story in our magazine. We want you and your readers to find us. <STRONG>Frames</STRONG> are another matter.</EM>) <P> <P><DT><STRONG>Decide</STRONG> <DD>Is this material really worth framing? Or would you be better served by simply providing a brief description and a hyperlink. In general, if you use frames, be conservative about framing material from other sites. <P> <P><DT><STRONG>Tell</STRONG> <DD>Make sure all your content providers understand the rules for using material from other sites, especially framing. <P> <P><DT><STRONG>Check</STRONG> <DD>Make sure your site is following your established policy. If things get really nasty it can help your case. <P> <P><DT><STRONG>Just Say No</STRONG> <DD>Frames are somewhat controversial anyway because of the other problems they cause. They're not supported by all browsers, they're slow to load, difficult for indexing robots to handle and they can do unpleasant things to the "back" button. In my opinion you're almost always better off not using frames and substituting less troublesome structures such as tables where you have to divide a page into sections.</DL> <P> Being framed is more annoying than framing. Usually all it takes is a polite request to the framer to remove your site or reference it more appropriately with a hyperlink. Unfortunately we are discovering that our global village comes complete with its supply of global village idiots. If your polite request is ignored, there are stronger measures you can take, including some technical fixes you might want to try before you call in the lawyers. (See <A HREF="/netscapeworld/nw-05-1997/nw-05-html.html"> Chuck Musciano's HTML Q&A column</A> for more on <CODE>FRAME</CODE>-proofing your pages.) <IMG HEIGHT="8" WIDTH="8" SRC="/netscapeworld/icons/dingbat.gif">  </DL> <P> <P> <HR> <P> <A NAME="resources"><STRONG>Resources</STRONG></A> <UL> <LI><A HREF="/netscapeworld/nw-05-1997/nw-05-html.html">"The best way to FRAME-proof your pages"</A>, the May 1997 HTML Q&A column in the May 1997 issue of <EM>NetscapeWorld</EM>. http://www.netscapeworld.com/nw-05-1997/nw-05-html.html <LI>David H. Rothman, a contributor to the <EM>Christian Science Monitor</EM>, has followed linking, framing, and related issues closely. His site includes some good reporting as well as personal opinions, and a clear distinction between the two. The last URL concerns the Shetland newspapers case, and includes links to related articles elsewhere on the Web. <A HREF="http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/ga.htm">http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/ga.htm</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/plinks.htm">http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/plinks.htm</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/links.htm">http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/links.htm</A> <LI>A column from the on-line edition of Advertising Age on <A HREF="http://adage.com/interactive/articles/19961209/article8.html"> avoiding trademark and copyright infringement on the Internet</A>. http://adage.com/interactive/articles/19961209/article8.html <LI><A HREF="http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stop/st103096.htm"> Stories dealing with the Shetland newspapers case</A>. http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stop/st103096.htm <LI>Two news stories about the Ticketmaster-Microsoft case <A HREF="http://www.businessweek.com/1997/19/b352659.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/1997/19/b352659.htm</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html97/tick_042997.html">http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html97/tick_042997.html</A> <LI>A view from New Zealand, including information on a television network's attempts to stop Web pages from using its logo. <A HREF="http://www.aardvark.co.nz/n206.htm">http://www.aardvark.co.nz/n206.htm</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.ljx.com/internet/02cptmint.html">http://www.ljx.com/internet/02cptmint.html</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.ljx.com/internet/0411frame.html">http://www.ljx.com/internet/02cptmint.html</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.ljx.com/internet/">http://www.ljx.com/internet/</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.ljextra.com/trademark/index.html">http://www.ljextra.com/trademark/index.html</A> <LI>A list of federal cases, with links, pertaining to the Internet, including a section on linking and framing. <A HREF="http://www.perkinscoie.com/resource/cases.htm">http://www.perkinscoie.com/resource/cases.htm</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.perkinscoie.com/resource/cases.htm#Web">http://www.perkinscoie.com/resource/cases.htm#Web</A> <LI>Site linking & framing resources <A HREF="http://www.stbbs.com/personal/frice/FLIST066.HTM">http://www.stbbs.com/personal/frice/FLIST066.HTM</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.educom.edu/web/pubs/edreview.html">http://www.educom.edu/web/pubs/edreview.html</A> <LI><A HREF="http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/572/72mtco4.htm">Online sources for information on Intellectual property law</A> http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/572/72mtco4.htm <LI>US vs Thomas involved the operators of an adult BBS, but it is a key case on jurisdiction over the Internet -- or how you can be charged for a crime in a state you've never even visited. The appeals court's decision lays it out. <A HREF="http://www.epic.org/free_speech/censorship/us_v_thomas.html">http://www.epic.org/free_speech/censorship/us_v_thomas.html</A> <LI><A HREF="http://www.azlink.com/lawyers/">Essays on intellectual property law</A> by an attorney specializing in the area. http://www.azlink.com/lawyers/ <LI><A HREF="http://www.brint.com/IntellP.htm#POLpprs">"Intellectual property: Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents"</A> http://www.brint.com/IntellP.htm#POLpprs <LI>Links to intellectual property resources: <A HREF="http://www.innerimages.com/res01d.htm">http://www.innerimages.com/res01d.htm</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.cptech.org/ip/resources.html">http://www.cptech.org/ip/resources.html</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.law.cornell.edu/jol/lemley.html">http://www.law.cornell.edu/jol/lemley.html</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.law.cornell.edu/jol/jol.table.html">http://www.law.cornell.edu/jol/jol.table.html</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.essential.org/cpt/ip/ipr.html">http://www.essential.org/cpt/ip/ipr.html</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.handor.com/usaiplaw/">http://www.handor.com/usaiplaw/</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.lightlink.com/bbm/">http://www.lightlink.com/bbm/</A><BR> <LI>The Electronic Frontier Foundation is invauable on legal issues concerning the Net. It offers both a primer on intellectual property on the Net and a list of publications dealing with the issues. <A HREF="http://www.eff.org/pub/CAF/law/ip-primer">http://www.eff.org/pub/CAF/law/ip-primer</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/">http://www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/</A> </UL> <HR> <P> <STRONG>About the author</STRONG><BR> Rick Cook got his start designing pages the old fashioned way, with paper and ink. Now he divides his time between writing about the web, computers and high technology, and writing fantasy novels full of bad computer jokes. Reach Rick at <A NAME="author" HREF="/cgi-bin/ned-mailto.cgi?rick.cook@netscapeworld.com+/netscapeworld/nw-06-1997/nw-06-bestpract.html+author">rick.cook@netscapeworld.com</a>. <IMG HEIGHT="8" WIDTH="8" SRC="/netscapeworld/icons/dingbat.gif">  </DL> <a href="http://popularhyip.com">HYIP Monitor</a></BODY>   </HTML>