[thelist] Illegal to link?

Stuart Young syoung at unitec.ac.nz
Thu Mar 31 19:17:32 CST 2005


This is something I feel very strongly about so I'll try not to rant!

At our institution, the NZ copyright collective (copyright collecting
agency)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_collective 
http://www.copyright.co.nz/ 
http://www.copyright.org.nz/ 
come and tell management that it is breaking copyright to deep-link.
Then our library, academic development unit and learning technology
units inform us staff in workshops and policies that it is breaking
copyright to deep-link.

I have often complained about this saying that it is:
* not necessary - legal opinion is far from absolute that this is the
case - many legal types disagree that deep-linking breaks copyright.
* flying in the face of real world practice - the web was built on
deep-links - how come Google are allowed to do it?
* poor education practice - how on earth can we expect our students to
follow instructions such as: go to this home page click this link,
scroll down and click this link.
* poor copyright practice - because it actually encourages the
lecturers to copy the webpage or print it out and photocopy it - both of
which also break copyright.

However no-one in management at my institution has the nerve or ability
to think for themselves and realise that banning deep-linking is
ridiculous and that the advice of the NZ copyright collecting agency
should be ignored.

I have also emailed the NZ copyright collecting agency several times
asking them on what they base this decision and how come Google can do
it. They have been unable to provide me any sort of coherent explanation
and point blank refused to answer the Google question.

Basically it is clear to me that the NZ copyright collecting agency are
simply a front for the publishers who are clearly scared about the
effect of all the free information online on the sales of their
textbooks and so trying everything they can to stop teachers using the
web and keep them using textbooks. 

cheers, (phew I managed not to rank). 

P.S. here's some more refs, none of which is particularly useful...

Bechtold, S. (2002, July 13, 2002). The Link Controversy Page.
http://www.jura.uni-tuebingen.de/bechtold/lcp.html

Kuester, J. R., & Nieves, P. A. (1998). Hyperlinks, Frames and
Meta-Tags: An Intellectual Property Analysis. IDEA: The Journal of Law
and Technology, 38 (243). http://www.patentperfect.com/idea.htm 

Garrote, I. J. (2000). Linking, Framing and Copyright: A Comparative
Law Approach. http://ssrn.com/abstract=280596 

Kiritsov, S. (2000). Can Millions of Internet Users Be Breaking the Law
Every Day? An Intellectual Property Analysis of Linking and Framing and
the Need for Licensing. Stanford Technology Law Review.
http://stlr.stanford.edu/STLR/Events/linking/index.htm 

Ruse, H. G. (2000). Copyright Aspects of Hyperlinking (Report # ESPRIT
Project 12278 to Electronic Commerce Legal Issues Platform).
http://www.jura.uni-muenster.de/eclip/workshop/2nd/Grosse_Ruse_handout.pdf


Sableman, M. (2001). Link Law Revisited: Internet Linking Law at Five
Years. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 16 (3).
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/journals/btlj/articles/vol16/sableman/sableman.pdf



--
Dr Stuart Young,       	+64 (0)9-815 4321 x 8656
<syoung at unitec.ac.nz> 	+64 021 183 2846 (mob)
Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Technology,
Unitec New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand
http://tinyurl.com/4956o
(the official URL for my staffpage is too long and complex)
http://www.pixelandgrain.co.nz/
Web development, graphic design and photography

>>> gsb at athenswebdevelopment.com 31/03/2005 03:49:55 >>>
On Wed, 2005-03-30 at 10:30 -0500, Joshua Olson wrote:
> 
> https://data.webmd.com/sdclive/sdcform.aspx?formid=l2uRegistration 
> 
> Anybody know if that is total BS?
> 

When challenged, it appears this kind of thing has not held up - at
least in the US.

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v11n1/meyer111.html 

and 

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectID/C13F7E6B- 
B05E-43DF-80D62B635DF9DD9F/310/266/ART/




> <><><><><><><><><><>
> Joshua Olson
> Web Application Engineer
> WAE Tech Inc.
> http://www.waetech.com/service_areas/ 
> 706.210.0168 
> 
> 

-- 

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