I was asked to summarize responses to this question for the list. Many
responders said that copyright permission is required, and that is what
I believe is the safe answer.
I found information on this subject in "The Library's Legal Anwer Book"
by Many Minow and Tomas A. Lipinski published by ALA. This book has a
chapter on a "Designing the Library Web Page." The authors state that
it is not a copyright violation to place a link on our page because "you
are not actually copying another website's copyrighted expression, but
merely its address." The discussion follows to the issue of
deep-linking ("the practice of bypassing introductory home pages and
thereby bypassing a site's own content and advertising") which is more
complicated because the legal basis for unauthorized deep linking is not
rooted in copyright theory.
After reading this chapter, I took the authors' advice and checked the
legal page of the site owner to find their terms and conditions of use.
The source I checked requires that we go through a reprint supplier for
e-prints, e.g., a reprint in electronic format which looks the same as a
hard copy reprint, but is posted on our company's web page.
The legality may also be affected by whether or not your library is
for-profit as ours is, but as the authors of the Answer Book state "it
may be easier to just obtain a simple (written) permission to deep-link
to a commercial website, similar to the copyright permissions routinely
obtained for the use of copyrighted materials."
It seems that all this may change and we should continue to monitor this
subject.
Thanks to all who responded.
Barbara
Barbara J. Davis / Director of Library Resources
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
425 Walnut Street, Suite 1800
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-3957
Tel: 513.381.2838 . Fax: 513.381.0205
Direct: 513.357.9403 . Cell: 513.253.6888
www.taftlaw.com / davisb@taftlaw.com
Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 Disclosure: As provided for in Treasury regulations, advice (if any) relating to federal taxes that is contained in this communication (including attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (1) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (2) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.
This message may contain information that is attorney-client privileged, attorney work product or otherwise confidential. If you are not an intended recipient, use and disclosure of this message are prohibited. If you received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message and any attachments.
### ### ###
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
Behalf Of Davis, Barbara J.
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 10:01 AM
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Linking on Firm Web Pages
Colleagues,
I believe this has been addressed by the list, but I don't remember the
discussion. Our firm is considering adding links to stories about our
attorneys which appear in online or paper publications. Is copyright
permission required? Is it allowed as long as it is not deep linking?
Could someone either instruct me on this or direct me to where I might
find an answer?
Thanks in advance.
Barbara
Barbara J. Davis /
Director of Library Resources
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
Taft / 425 Walnut Street, Suite 1800
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-3957
Tel: 513.381.2838 * Fax: 513.381.0205
Direct: 513.357.9403 * Cell: 513.253.6888
www.taftlaw.com <http://www.taftlaw.com/> / davisb@taftlaw.com
Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 Disclosure: As provided for in
Treasury regulations, advice (if any) relating to federal taxes that is
contained in this communication (including attachments) is not intended
or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (1)
avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (2) promoting,
marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter
addressed herein.
This message may contain information that is attorney-client privileged,
attorney work product or otherwise confidential. If you are not an
intended recipient, use and disclosure of this message are prohibited.
If you received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by
reply e-mail and delete the message and any attachments.
6.02x1023
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