Re: Linking and breaking news

On Wed, 03 Feb 1999, Brian Negin <negin[_at_]cbs.gov.il> wrote, (among other things):
>
> While no law has been established on the questions raised in these
> cases, it could be argued that a certain level of custom or practice
> has developed in the commercial field: do not link without permission;
> ...

I'm curious to know what custom and practice you are referring to for this proposition? Just the fact that commercial sites have decided that they don't want to be linked to other sites? And what constitutes a "commercial field" for this rule of thumb? If a site operated by a not-for-profit offers links to commercial sites (using only their names, for identification, not their logos) because those sites may illustrate a point, have information that might be of interest, etc., is that in the "commercial field"?

I would've said that the custom and practice of the Internet was to encourage and permit linking (I'm putting aside the Total News and Ticketmaster kinds of issues), and that by putting up a site, one was making the site available for what goes on on the Internet: visits from random readers and non-misleading links to and from other sites. Recently, however I've recently heard commercial entities claim -- adopting a sort of real property/trespass notion -- that no one can link to their sites without their permission. I assume they wouldn't object if someone were touting their products and directing someone to their sites to see for him/herself; if so, I would've said that the same principle allows a competitor to link in order to illustrate some disfavorable aspect of a product or practice.

Does this custom and practice in the commercial field also forbid simply providing the URL to another commerin addition to the actual linking?

With the variety of things going on on the Internet, are these really such settled questions that we can be talking with any great assurance about "custom and practice in the commercial field"?

Gloria C. Phares
gcphares[_at_]pbwt.com Received on Fri Feb 05 1999 - 01:20:59 GMT