rogerd - 5:47 pm on Jan 21, 2008 (gmt 0)

It's been more than a decade since the most famous link lawsuit in which Ticketmaster sued MSN for linking to specific Ticketmaster pages.

This never went to a judge or jury, as the firms settled privately and MSN stopped linking.

The situation isn't the same, as MSN was doing a lot of deep linking which allowed MSN Sidewalk users to bypass Ticketmaster's navigation and content. Still, it's worth noting that Microsoft didn't thumb their nose at Ticketmaster and claim that all links are always legal.

I think it would be hard to argue that a single home page link on an appropriate site (e.g., not adult or otherwise objectionable) is some kind of misuse of their intellectual property. But, as others have noted, being right doesn't mean you can't get sued. The threat in this case sounds kind of weak, though.