Lee_Roberts - 2:21 pm on Jan 25, 2007 (gmt 0)

Perhaps a study of the case law is required to understand why Deep Linking was used versus Hot Linking. Also, to understand that the judge was correct in his opinion whether he was smart enough to examine previous case law or not.

Quoted from: [library.findlaw.com ]

"Two recent cases illustrate the potential issues associated with linking and framing. In TicketMaster v. Microsoft (C.D. Cal. 1997), Microsoft was sued by TicketMaster for linking to pages within TicketMaster's web site without TicketMaster's authority. While one would think that TicketMaster would have been more than happy to have Microsoft direct business to TicketMaster's web site, TicketMaster argued, among other things, that Microsoft did not link users to TicketMaster's main home page, but rather "deep linked" directly to content pages within TicketMaster's web site. The second case, The Washington Post Company, et al v. TotalNews, Inc., et al (S.D. N.Y. 1997), involved framing by TotalNews of the Washington Post's web site. TotalNews was in the business of supplying news content from multiple sources which were displayed within a frame on TotalNews' web site."

At any rate, it has been established since 1997 that the act of linking to another Web site's content without prior consent is a violation of copyright laws.

The case of linking to a media file on another Web site is illegal because of the following reasons:

1. It presents the idea that the media file is the property of the Web site where the link is found.
2. It removes or hides the true ownership and intellectual property rights of the true owner.
3. Removes the opportunity for the true owner to receive personal or financial gain from their works.

Hot linking is actually defined as including a file within a Web page. If you have an image on your Web site and I link to that image within my Web page, I am hot linking because my Web page is calling your image directly into it.

Deep linking is defined as linking to a file on another Web site which requires clicking a link within a Web page before the linked file can be used.

I hope this helps everyone.