Re: Avoiding the first page with an index

Bob Penn <thresshold[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> On 97-04-11, Phil Stripling <philip[_at_]crl.com> wrote:
> >
> > 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?
>
> I believe that under certain circumstances it is inappropriate to
> link to a page in the middle of a site. Those circumstances include
>
> a link to specific proprietary content [i.e., a "hot news" item]
> which bypasses the credit page. However, I don't think that the
> burden of making the determination as to whether the link is "proper"
> should be placed on the person making the link. Rather, if in the
> author's view the site should only be viewed in a particular order,
> then the author should construct the site [using cgi scripts or
> otherwise] so that links to an internal or out of sequence page are
> bumped to the first page. Absent such action on the part of the
> author, it is fair to link [but not copy] to any page.

 I'm sure - with TotalNEWS and other cases - we're going to see a lot of development in the law of this particular aspect of the Web. In the meantime, it's a simple matter of courtesy to email webmasters when you place a link to their site. If I'm placing a link from my site to a URL (file or anchor) other than the home page, I offer to redirect to the home page should they so request, although I don't think that (in the UK at least, and despite Shetland Times) there are copyright reasons why I should. With the boot on the other foot, my site Edward Barrow's Unofficial Copyright Pages at

   http://www.plato32.demon.co.uk/Edward/

has an entry quiz to establish a basic level of understanding for first-time visitors. I would therefore rather that visitors were directed via the home page. It is a lot easier to contact webmasters than print-on-paper rightsholders, so notifications aren't a problem.

Edward Barrow
<edward[_at_]plato32.demon.co.uk> Received on Tue Apr 15 1997 - 23:51:18 GMT