Re: legality of web links to articles?

[Rev Simon Rumble <simon -at- rumble -dot- net>]

On Tue 12 Feb, Kelley said:

> About two years ago, a client's attorneys held up a project for about month 
> over the issue. I finally said, "whatever! Getting permission to link seems 
> strange to me. But, I'd like to move on..." Sadly, the attorneys were right.

Remember the economics of working with lawyers.  They get paid by the
hour so they have a good knack of making work for themselves.  You
measure them by whether or not you get sued which means they take the
most conservative approach possible.

Your client's attorneys were not right.  I can put a notice at the
start of a book I publish saying "you may not quote from this book"
but that doesn't mean I am legally right.  Copyright law was designed
to be a balance between the rights of authors and the desire for
creative expression and criticism.  The Fair Use provisions of
Copyright were designed exactly for this and they extend to the Web
just as they worked on dead trees.

Don't let negatively worded legalese scare you off using the Web as it
was designed.

-- 
Rev Simon Rumble <simon -at- rumble -dot- net>
www.rumble.net

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for
appointment by the corrupt few. 

- George Bernard Shaw

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