vincevincevince - 2:34 pm on Jan 25, 2007 (gmt 0)

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'd just like to add that under that above definition what happened in this case was clearly deep linking and not hot linking.

What those who think this act was illegal are missing is that all that was posted was a clickable link to a stream which opens in your default media player.

The stream was not embedded in the page in any way, it was just a link. If there's something wrong with that then it means that if I find any audio file on the web and give you the link to it I am infringing upon copyright.

In these days of multimedia internet offerings and the need for accessiblity a URL can easily point at audio, video or flash. These are all the equivalent of web-pages but in a different format. They should be viewed as no different to any other page on the site.