S. Keith Graham <vapspcx[_at_]cad.gatech.edu> inquired:
>
> Is this any different than what the search engines do? Is this legal,
> especially since I'm making it clear that I'm just creating an index
> into other people's works? Is it "ethical" to bypass their front page?
I _hope_ creating indexes is legal or there are a _lot_ of us in trouble. :-)
I have several pages that list links to other people's pages and describe the contents. On several of my descriptions I have the initial link to the other person's desired opening page, then in the description I say what I think the problems are and suggest an internal page instead and provide a link.
Most people never know of the existence of my list of links. One person did find my page and send me an objection to the internal link. I had said his first page was credits and a pointer to the real content, so skip that page and go to the real content. He said the first page also told people how to suggest other sites or improvements to his site and he didn't want it missed, because he required the suggestions in a specific format. I went back a looked, decided my description was correct, and emailed him that my description would stand. He sent me another objection saying it was his site, he wanted people to use the first page, and I was overriding his preference with my suggestion. All true. My description still stands.
I can't count how many front pages I've seen that say
W E L C O M E T O M Y P A G E
Click HERE to enter
I bypass them all unless I can determine that the page determines browser type and directs the request to a page for Netscape/IE or for Lynx, etc.
If people have a page on the Web, it's publicly available for reading. I don't think it's an ethical issue to point to pages out of the order the author intended. Isn't the Web the biggest nonlinear information system in the world?
Phil
Phil Stripling
<philip[_at_]crl.com>
Received on Thu Apr 10 1997 - 20:17:26 GMT
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