Re: URIs, deep linking, framing, adapting and related concerns

On Fri, 2010-12-17 at 09:15 -0500, Jonathan Rees wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 5:46 AM, "Martin J. Dürst"
> <duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp> wrote:
> > If the TAG or some people on the TAG continue to put forward opinions such
> > as that it may be perfectly okay to transclude an image with img@src without
> > any permission, then this will just continue to hold up progress on the main
> > issue, and risks to discredit the TAG.
> 
> I think you are referring to me? 

Some comments:

 - The question of deep linking (e.g.,
http://example.com/a/very/deep/link.html ) versus shallow link (e.g.,
http://example.com/ ) has *nothing* to do with transclusion or copyright
issues.  Those issues are exactly the same whether the URL is deep or
shallow.  I hope the TAG would readily agree with this.

 - As Mark and Martin have pointed out, there is a clear *qualitative*
difference between the use of a URL for transclusion (via <img ...>,
<iframe ...>, etc.), and its use for citation, (via <a href=...>, etc.).
I hope the TAG would also readily agree with this.  (I think Jonathan
was taking offense unnecessarily.)

 - The hard part may be in defining the precise boundary between
citation and transclusion, as technology evolves and new URI contexts
arise or old contexts are rendered in new ways.  For example, in the
early days of the web, images linked from <img ...> tags were *not*
always rendered in the browser -- thus in those days an <img> tag was
much more like a citation than it is today.  Drawing this line is
exactly what courts do.  The TAG may help influence the courts in
drawing this line in a sensible place, but as a TAG finding the TAG
probably could not do much more than explain the rationale for the
boundary and provide examples that (in the TAG's view) fall on each side
at present.


-- 
David Booth, Ph.D.
Cleveland Clinic (contractor)
http://dbooth.org/

Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect those of Cleveland Clinic.

Received on Friday, 17 December 2010 19:24:12 UTC