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This question has come up on several occasions here. I just ran across
something that will, in all liklihood, clarify the issue, at least here in
the US.
Two newspapers in Indiana have filed a lawsuit over precisely this issue.
The newspapers are charging that the community web site (Ft-Wayne.com) is
improperly linking to their sites. In particular they claim that the
community site, by wrapping their pages in a frame which displays the
community site's address along with advertising, is looting their property.
This issue has come up before. TotalNews framed several sites, the
Washington Post among them, and when the Post sued, they eventually settled
the suit out of court by dropping the practice where the "framee"
complained.
The newspapers were quite clear that the suit was not about simple linking,
but the practice of framing the site linked to. Also at issue is the
seeling of advertising in the enclosing frame; the newspapers claim the
site is doing that, but the site designer denies it.
The site designers, also named as defendants as is the ISP, compared
framing the newspapers' sites to putting a "courtesy of" sticker on
newspapers given away at hotels, a common practice.
As a webspinner myself, I have a great deal of sympathy for the newspapers'
point of view. The content *is* their business, not a byproduct of it, or
another avenue for selling it, and making it appear as if the content came
from someone else seems wrong to me.
BTW, there's an interesting essay on this topic at:
Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224
Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.
