Re: [dvd-discuss] NYTimes.com Article: Google Runs Into Copyright Dispute

[Steve Bryan <sbryan(at)vendorsystems.com>]

On Wednesday, April 24, 2002, at 10:08  am, Dean Sanchez wrote:

> Else we go down the road (which a number of sites are trying to do) of 
> stating that linking to a copyrighted site without permission (as 
> search engines also do) is a violation of copyright.

It might be going too far to ascribe careful analytical thought to my 
irascibility yesterday, but I suspect the idea quoted above was part of 
the process. I read the NYTimes all the time both on the web and the 
actual paper copy. I see and expect ads to appear in both and don't give 
it a second thought (OK, some of the fashion ads are slightly 
distracting). But the Times and others seem to be waging a campaign to 
subvert and in some sense claim ownership of the fundamental mechanism 
of the web: hyperlinks. The NYTimes did not invent the internet (we all 
know who actually did) so it is irksome for them to gum up the works in 
order to make an illicit claim to some sort of ownership over links and 
charge us via advertisements on otherwise non-commercial e-mail lists.

Personally this won't affect whether or not I read the NYTimes. I will. 
But as long as they are implicitly making this spurious claim of 
ownership (of links) I won't be trying to provide links to the Times. 
After they have been brought to their knees by this devastating action, 
I'll try to encourage less aggressive behavior on their part.