I think the main concern here is loss of revenue through
the bypassing of advertising. However, I can also see that
for some sites the access of items of information out of
context may be problematic (though personally I think its
up to the site to organise info and, if necessary, control
access).
Another concern is passing off someones info as your own,
as in the famous Shetland Times case. While this is most
blatant in the case of "framing" sites, even a non-framing
site with, say, a series of links to a set of articles
which themselves may not have any strong site branding
could give the user the impression that the linked to
material belonged to the linking site.
The analogy to citing references is not, IMHO, quite fair -
in print, references are clearly marked as such - there are
firm conventions and standards on how this should be done
... likewise, quoting from other sources is also subject to
agreed standards of presentation. The reader is at no stage
in any doubt as to what material is the authors, and what
comes form another source. This is very different to a
simple "click here for more info" buried in a hyper-text.
Before I get jumped on, let me just say I'm not defending
the case against "deep linking", merely expounding why I
think it is an issue which needs fuller understanding and
addressing. It would seem the EU already has a view on this
... see the article in Computing Jan. 25th
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1116860
from this I would suggest that whatever your views on
academic freedom etc. you do need to proceed with caution.
One might hope that, for instance, academics would not be
adverse to your deep linking an article they had written
mounted on a journal site. However it is unlikely they have
any part in the site management - the publisher may have a
very different view, and be keen, for example, for visitors
to see the list of new titles on the home page.
Cheers,
Colin
On Fri, 16 Feb 2001 09:50:26 -0000 "Scott, John F"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > I agree that this is unworkable in practice, but I can see the reason
> > for concern, esp. since "deep linking" is looking increasingly dodgy
> > legally speaking.
> >
> [Scott, John F] I must have missed the relevant discussion, but why is deep
> linking legally dodgy? I know some sites prefer you to link only to their
> main page, but then some authors prefer you to read their books from cover
> to cover, starting at the first page.
>
> Citations enable you to find the specific piece of information they're
> referring you to - why should hyperlinks be different?
>
> John
----------------------
Colin K. Work
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