Consider I wanted to create a page with the latest news about XYZ. The latest news about XYZ was titled "XYZ Blah Blah Blah" in a news publication. Would I be infringing copyright law by using a headline such as "XYZ Blah Blah Blah" as a link to the original source with no other commentary about the subject?
rogerd
1:35 pm on Feb 7, 2004 (gmt 0)
Not a legal opinion, but linking to an article by title would appear to be fair use. In print, it's common to use the article title to describe it in text or to cite it in a bibliography.
In my own observation, the article title seems to be the most common way to link to an article. This might fall under the "can't copyright a title" provision, too - maybe one of our legal-types will weigh in.
mgream
4:17 pm on Feb 7, 2004 (gmt 0)
I would also add - in addition to rogerd - that you need to be careful about the extent of your linking. While it is fair use to use titles for referential purposes, it could become a problem if you make excessive use of the titles from one source - whether this is the case depends on a number of issues, it's hard to be perscriptive and describe them. I get the impression this will not be a problem for you (i.e. in the case where it is a specialised topic and you're referring to a variety of titles from different sources).
