linking to sites w/o owners permission

[skattabrain]

question ... if i link to a web site, is there a legal reason why i have NO RIGHT to do this without permission?

and... if i don't have the permission, and the owner wants the link removed ... do i have a legal obligation to remove it?

using RSS feeds, i had someone's web site pop up on one of my pages ... tey were pissed about it .. saying i have no right to promote my site with their name.

how do i handle this?

[noppid]

question ... if i link to a web site, is there a legal reason why i have NO RIGHT to do this without permission?

and... if i don't have the permission, and the owner wants the link removed ... do i have a legal obligation to remove it?

using RSS feeds, i had someone's web site pop up on one of my pages ... tey were pissed about it .. saying i have no right to promote my site with their name.

how do i handle this?

Tell then not to publish to public feeds. It's not your problem IMO. I'm no attorney though.

[skattabrain]

what if the feed is from a public search engine ... like gigablast? this person doesn't understnad the value of IBL's and is a bit too fond of himself ... he think's the popularity of his name (which he posts on a free hosting site) is how i make my money.

LOL

[disgust]

I'd be very very surprised if he has any legal ground to object

but I have heard of weird lawsuits involving that before. I'm pretty sure they didn't get anything though :)

[ViciousSummer]

Haha...That is just stupid. Someone should tell that guy if he doesn't want links to his site, perhaps he should take it down since the internet is built on linking.

I doubt he has any legal recourse unless you are linking to his site with "malicious intent" (lawyers love that phrase, since it allows them to sue for everything). :rolleyes:

[Solicitors Mortgages]

you can link to any page on the internet that you want to.

you cant however display other peoples content... if its just a link...and its not under a heading like 'shit site here' then you are OK

[Blogmaster]

how about "check out this cool site even though the owner is a moron"?

[myamar]

I hope you didn't use "This site is one of my clients for what I sell here".
That will be "promoting your site with their name". Isn't it?

[yfs1]

In the case of an RSS feed I see no legal standing and it is unreasonable to ask someone to take down an entire feed. His legal beef would be with the creator of the feed if they didn't have permission although its iffy there if there isn't slander involved.

If you had a static link and someone complained, if you could verify they were the owner of the site, I would just take it down. When you are successful, you can sometimes be a target. No point in making the bullseye bigger.

[daboss]

maybe you should educate him as to what rss feeds are about - he may not be net savvy enough to understand... :)

[mcfox]

What a muppet! Believe it or not, there have been previous hassles where certain sites have tried to impose a Do Not Link policy. More info: Stupid Linking Policies (http://blogamania.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_blogamania_archive.html).

[davedx]

LOL, that's a great site mcfox :D

Yeah, I'd just ignore it personally. Add his name to your spam filter and carry on with your life ;)

Edit: Wow, just read this CME post (http://www.dontlink.com/2002_10_01_archive.html#82697475) on mcfox's blog. How amazing is that. I noticed they've gradually watered down the wording, to the point that a hyperlink isn't specifically mentioned as a "CME Brand Feature" - instead they use the legally exceptional "etc..."!!! I actually dropped them an email asking if I added their link to my blog and I clicked on it, whether they'd sue me or not :)

People really are dumb... and sometimes the bigger they are, the dumber.

[rhinoplayer]

No legal worries unless they can prove you harmed there reputation (than they could force you to remove link) or you caused financial damage (than they could enforce punitive damage). But I can't think of a good scenario for the latter to occur.