[h2o-discuss] deep linking

[Eric Eldred <eldred@mediaone.net>]

Jon Garfunkel wrote:
>
>Ticketmaster is suing someone because of
> deep-linking, _again_. Apparently they are quite miffed about an outside
> comapny once again offering links directly to ticket sales (and it's
> oh-so-tough to stay in business when you're only making $5.50 surcharge per
> ticket sale, when you could be making so much more by ad-clickthroughs.)
> 
> I'm of the "architecture-based" camp, but understand I know nothing about
> software law:
> 
> 1. The architecture of the web facilitates linking to any page on any site.
> 2. Nobody is forcing Ticketmaster to meet the standard of this architecture.
>  They can adopt part of this architecture. It fact it is very simple, worthy
> of a courtroom demonstration, to code a standard web CGI program to
> discriminate users based the site they had previous linked from.

I'll make a deep link into Salon magazine, where
Scott Rosenberg presents a balanced discussion of 
this issue:

http://www.salonmagazine.com/tech/col/rose/1999/08/12/deep_links/index.html

I too would hate to see a blanket prohibition on
deep linking.  I encourage readers to link directly
to my books, even to paragraphs inside web pages.
Nor would I be happy if a rule prohibited it only
for "big commercial websites".  I don't see how
one could make the distinction.

Whereas Jon is absolutely correct, that if a
webmaster wanted to prohibit deep links practically,
there are several technical means to enforce that,
without changing the law.  The courts ought to
encourage petitioners to use those methods 
instead of appealing to the courts.

Still, isn't it always a good policy to ask 
permission first?  You don't legally have to do
so, before making a link anywhere, I think, 
but it makes friends rather than enemies.  I 
know I field requests every day for those who
wish to link to my pages:  I can then tell
them, for example, that I wish to have the link
say "Eldritch Press" rather than "Eric Eldred,"
and what to do if my end of the link suddenly 
disappears.

But for those of us who feel our free, open
Internet and web are now threatened by those
who wish to make it safe for e-commerce, and
turn it into pay-per-view television, a
court decision about deep linking would 
probably be only bad news.  It would only
open up more issues such as framing without
permission, for the courts to decide for us.

> 
> Though I recall that Prof. Lessig was none-too-happy about embedding values
> into the PICS architecture.

This is an intriguing point that I don't
quite grasp--Jon, can you explain it at more
length in relation to deep linking?
-- 
"Eric"    Eric Eldred      Eldritch Press
mailto:EricEldred@usa.net  http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/
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