IP: copyrighting a URL *link*??!!

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

X-Sender: jwarren () mail well com
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 1998 13:27:16 -0800
To: farber () cis upenn edu (Dave Farber), love () essential org
From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
Subject: copyrighting a URL *link*??!!


I just got this note from a long-time friend and former reporter and editor
in Palo Alto, Californica <sic>.  GEEZ! -- what *will* the bucks-hustlers
and control-freaques think of next?!


--jim-in-disgust; jwarren () well com
Jim Warren, sometime columnist, political irritant, hedonist wannabe


===


> There's a minor flap going on in Palo Alto about whether someone can
> copyright a URL *link* to a sub-page of a Web site -- thus being able to
> limit who links to their pages. On one hand, the URL is a unique appendage
> created as part of the copyrighted page, and thus might be included in the
> copyright protection. On the other hand, it's like a street address, not
> copyright-able.
>
> I also raised the question whether being able to include a URL that is just
> in the text, with no link, is a freedom-of-speech matter -- vs. making it
> a link to the page, and if there is any legal distinction between the two.
> To which Harry Saal added that his e-mail program automatically makes
> anything that resembles a URL into a link if it connects to something.
>
> I noted that the ability to link is one of the basics of the efficient flow
> of information on the Internet, whereas copying text from a copyrighted Web
> site and distributing it via another Web site or via e-mail/listserv
> probably is a copyright violation.