Links on commercial site to other sites okay?

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by COOLORANGEFREEZE, Jan 30, 2010.

  1. #1
    So let's say my site is making money. That makes it commercial. So if I have links to Reuters news and/or a traffic site is that illegal? I'm not manipulating their data, just linking to their site from my site so my users have extra options.

    What do you think about this?
     
    COOLORANGEFREEZE, Jan 30, 2010 IP
  2. COOLORANGEFREEZE

    COOLORANGEFREEZE Active Member

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    #2
    This question has been answered in a previous thread. Perhaps I posted again due to paranoia. The basic answer is that linking to other sites is okay. If they don't want you to link to them then they will let you know and they would be out of the industry if they rejected others linking to them. That is how I understand it.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2010
    COOLORANGEFREEZE, Feb 5, 2010 IP
  3. DubDubDubDot

    DubDubDubDot Peon

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    #3
    Just about every site on the internet does this. What does that tell you?
     
    DubDubDubDot, Feb 5, 2010 IP
  4. xanth

    xanth Active Member

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    #4
    Most sites I know take content from other sites... unlawfully. ;) And it's not always so simple. See "deep linking" cases and some sites' desire to manage the display of their content. Just saying that not everything is so obvious and cut the OP some slack. :)
     
    xanth, Feb 5, 2010 IP
  5. COOLORANGEFREEZE

    COOLORANGEFREEZE Active Member

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    #5
    I wasn't familiar with the "deep linking" term. Here is some more info for anyone else from source:

    Some commercial websites object to other sites making deep links into their content either because it bypasses advertising on their main pages, passes off their content as that of the linker or, like The Wall Street Journal, they charge users for permanently-valid links.

    Sometimes, deep linking has led to legal action such as in the 1997 case of Ticketmaster versus Microsoft, where Microsoft deep-linked to Ticketmaster's site from its Sidewalk service. This case was settled when Microsoft and Ticketmaster arranged a licensing agreement.

    Ticketmaster later filed a similar case against Tickets.com, and the judge in this case ruled that such linking was legal as long as it was clear to whom the linked pages belonged.[2] The court also concluded that URLs themselves were not copyrightable, writing: "A URL is simply an address, open to the public, like the street address of a building, which, if known, can enable the user to reach the building. There is nothing sufficiently original to make the URL a copyrightable item, especially the way it is used. There appear to be no cases holding the URLs to be subject to copyright. On principle, they should not be."
     
    COOLORANGEFREEZE, Feb 5, 2010 IP
  6. DoDo Me

    DoDo Me Peon

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    #6
    except the site has clearly say: dont' deep link me, otherwise link is ok.
     
    DoDo Me, Feb 11, 2010 IP