FC: Public Citizen will defend Dallas Morning News "deep linker"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:

"Latest linking spat: Dallas Morning News sends silly nastygrams"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03471.html

Congrats to Paul and Public Citizen for standing up for the right to link 
freely. (Of course, it's a shame -- what _is_ the Dallas Morning News 
thinking? -- that this issue has risen to the level that lawyers need to 
get involved.)

-Declan

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Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 11:11:18 -0400
From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY () citizen org>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Defense of deep linking

We have agreed to represent Avi Adelman, the Net activist who was 
charged  by the Dallas Morning News with copyright infringement because his 
web site includes "deep links" to news stories on the Dallas Morning News 
web site.   In a letter today to J. Kevin Gray, the Dallas lawyer who sent 
the demand letter to Adelman, we explained that linking to the actual page 
that viewers may find interesting, instead of simply to a web site's home 
page, is perfectly legal and that his attempt to squelch it represents an 
attack on a fundamental component of the Internet - - the fact that it 
enables members of the public to surf quickly from one site to another to 
find interesting and useful content.   We also cite two cases that have 
rejected copyright claims against "deep linking."  We have challenged Gray 
to explain the basis for his claim, or to do the decent thing and admit 
that he has no basis for suit.

Our letter is now posted on the Barking Dogs web site at the following deep 
link: 
http://www.barkingdogs.org/News_Features/April2002/04292002_DMN/04292002_DMN_2/Comments_Belo/05092002.shtml 
Our press release may be found on the Public Citizen web site, at the 
following deep link: 
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1107  The deep link to your 
original story on this outrageous demand, which informed us of the problem 
and helped us link up with Adelman, is as follows: 
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03471.html

Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html




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